Timor-Leste President Dr José Ramos-Horta touched on various business and development opportunities within Timor-Leste during a business engagement session with prominent local business figures as well as associations at the Royal Berkshire Hall, Royal Brunei Polo and Riding Club yesterday in hopes of wooing investment into the country.
“With its long illustrious history and wisdom of the leader, we have a lot to learn from Brunei and we hope that Brunei investors will come into Timor-Leste,” Dr José Ramos-Horta said.
“The current government is looking at infrastructure development. In the next several years, hundreds of millions of dollars will be put in national growth, water and sanitation, continuous improvement of the education system from preschool to university level, continued efforts of upgrading agriculture sector for food security, development of water front and others. We are also upgrading our international airport and we are looking for more trade as well as new industries.”
Ambassador of Timor-Leste to Brunei Darussalam Abel Guterres said, “This is an interactive business engagement and we hope that you can learn more about Timor-Leste and the opportunities that the country has to offer to foreign direct investments.”
The president was accompanied by Minister of Health Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Mohd Isham bin Haji Jaafar, Minister of Home Affairs Dato Seri Setia Awang Haji Ahmaddin bin Haji Abdul Rahman as the Minister-in-Attendance, as well as Deputy Minister (Energy) at the Prime Minister’s Office Haji Mohamad Azmi bin Haji Mohd Hanifah. Meanwhile, Stratacom Global Sdn Bhd Managing Director Peter Wong said, “The event is a business community-led initiative to enable better economic development and collaboration between both Brunei and Timor-Leste. The businesses are always looked to as the engines of growth in supporting the objectives laid out by our countries and to build on trusted leadership and drive for better opportunity. This will create benefits of the development across both nations, to achieve stability and sustained progress to create new opportunities for our people.
“There are a number of Bruneian companies that have already set foot into Timor-Leste and we have been the latest Bruneian company to step in.”
Nik Hafimi binti Abdul Haadii moderated the business engagement with the president. Guests also had the opportunity to meet and greet with Dr José Ramos-Horta. – James Kon
