The year 2022 is a meaningful year for ASEAN Centrality with the successful chairmanships of ASEAN by Cambodia, the G20 by Indonesia, and currently, of APEC by Thailand.

His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Haji Omar ‘Ali Saifuddien Sa’adul Khairi Waddien, Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam made the acknowledgement during a titah at the APEC Leaders’ Informal Dialogue with Guests.

The dialogue session was themed ‘Promoting Sustainable Trade and Investment between APEC and its Trading Partners’.

His Majesty also expressed his views, that the success of the summits demonstrated ASEAN’s outlook and commitment to the principle of promoting cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond for an inclusive and open regional architecture.

The monarch acknowledged the roles played by the guests of the Chair as Chairmen of the European Union and the Gulf Cooperation Council respectively, and Brunei Darussalam stresses the importance of finding complementarities for ongoing economy recovery efforts as well as in increasing preparedness against future crisis and resilience of business.

His Majesty in his closing remarks recognised the diversity of partners outside of APEC in sharing best practices, technical cooperation and technology transfer, and in bringing government and private sectors together to deliver commercially meaningful trade reforms by making international trade simpler, faster and cost-effective.

Among the guests of Chair were His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the Crown Prince and the Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia; and President of France Emmanuel Macron.

-- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin