Brunei aims to become regional financial hub

Brunei aims to become regional financial hub

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (AFP) - Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah announced Saturday his kingdom has established a financial center aimed at making the oil-rich state a regional hub.

The Brunei International Financial Center "is designed to make our nation state as the financial center for monetary sector, banks, security and insurance," he said in a speech to mark his 54th birthday.

"Such effort will provide employment opportunities, in addition to allowing skill and technology transfer of the financial arena to the locals," he added.

Brunei is attempting to diversify its oil-based economy, and has long habored ambitions to become a financial hub, which officials hope would rival neighboring Singapore and Malaysia.

Its ambition took on greater urgency after the Asian financial crisis in 1997 and the collapse of construction group Amedeo Corporation which saw Prince Jefri Bolkiah, the Sultan's brother, accused of squandering billions of dollars from the country's largest private company.

The collapse of Amedeo was estimated to have wasted some US$16 billion and severely set back the local economy, driven mainly by the tiny Southeast Asian state's oil exports.

Deputy Finance Minister Selamat Munap has told Singapore newspaper the Business Times the financial center would be modeled "somewhere between the Singapore and Bahrain IFCs (international financial centers)."

He said five legislations relating to international banking and trusts were already in place, and regulations on insurance licensing, securities and mutual funds would be ready by year- end.

The planned financial center will offer both conventional and Islamic facilities, he said.

In his speech, Sultan Bolkiah also said the government-owned Development Bank of Brunei would be renamed the Islamic Development Bank of Brunei (IDBB).

The IDBB will be managed according to Islamic laws under which no interest is charged on loans, he said. The Sultan also called on his subjects to uphold long-held values in the face of global changes.

"We will continue to choose a positive values system and uphold them. Such values include loyalty and love for the religion, race, Crown and country," he added.

Early Saturday morning, members of the Royal Brunei Air Force, the Royal Brunei Police Force and other uniformed officers held a military parade and 21-gun salute for the Sultan at a stadium here.