Vietnam is seeking to assist Brunei's development in rice production by bringing in expertise from Vietnam's agriculture industry, given that the Sultanate is currently diversifying its economy, said Vietnam Ambassador to Brunei Darussalam Pham Binh Man in an exclusive interview with The Brunei Times yesterday at the embassy.

We (Vietnam) can see that Brunei is diversifying its economy and that Brunei has been developing its rice area with assistance from the Philippines and China," he said. Relating that Vietnam is the second largest exporter of rice in the world, Pham said that the embassy was currently working closely with Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to send over a kw specialised experts in the industry in the near future to assist Brunei in rice production as well. "We would also very much like to bring in direct investment in fisheries, apart from agriculture, as we also have specialised businesses in Vietnam in this area that exports products to countries like Australia and the United States of America (USA)," said the ambassador. Speaking on the education forefront, the ambassador said he was pleased with student exchange programmes between Brunei and Vietnam that are under way. "Every year, the Brunei government gives out scholarships to Vietnamese students and government officials to pursue higher education such as Bachelor and Masters degrees at Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) as well as English training," he said, adding that two Vietnamese students completed their Master at UBD last year. However, the ambassador said he hoped Vietnam would be able to receive Bruneian students to Vietnam to learn of Science and Technology. "We are quite good in this area and Bruneian students can (benefit) from coming to Vietnam to study. We have universities such as Harvard from the United States and RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University) from Australia as well. We are very much looking forward to establishing more student exchange programmes in the future," he said. With regard to bilateral relations between the two countries, Pham said it has been more than 17 years since Brunei and Vietnam has developed and witnessed steady relations. "Economic cooperation relations between Brunei and Vietnam have been very modest. Currently, there is more than a US$6 million two-way trade turnover; he said. He added that although there has not been much investment from the Bruneian private sector in Vietnam, there have been a few Bruneian joint-venture companies that have been investing in Vietnam's manufacturing services. "Currently, there are more than 40 projects which involve Bruneian joint-venture companies in Vietnam, with a registered capital of more than US$4.6 billion," he said. Furthermore, the ambassador said, since 2007, there have been new aspects of economic relations that have opened up between the two countries, such as labour exchange. "Right now, we have about 1,000 Vietnamese workers in Brunei," the ambassador said. With regard to planting roots in Brunei, the ambassador said: "I have been ambassador here since 2007. Although Brunei is a small country, there are many activities to do here and it is a great place for a diplomat to Stay."