Monday, November 03, 2008 Agri department's plan to woo Brunei already gone to naught By Grace L. Plata
THERE is no way Brunei Darussalam will be enticed to fund a halal processing venture in Mindanao as the Department of Agriculture (DA) has been announcing since Brunei has already started developing a new deep water port with export processing facilities for halal food.
Councilor Peter Laviña said Brunei has just awarded the development of Pulau Muara Besar, an island off the coast of the eastern tip of oil-rich sultanate, to companies from Singapore and the Philippines.
He said the DA's plans to attract funds from Brunei for the development of halal processing plants in Mindanao have been overtaken by Brunei's own development initiative. Reasons for this, however, were not disclosed.
In visits to Brunei early this year, DA Secretary Arthur Yap offered Mindanao as site for halal processing facilities, which could supply halal food to Muslims in Southeast Asian countries and the Middle East.
Two years ago, Laviña also wrote a letter to Brunei offering Davao City as possible site for the halal processing center.
He said the Pulau Muara Besar project would involve the development of the 995-hectare island in Brunei Bay with a new container port, export processing zone for halal food, and other manufacturing facilities to help diversify the industrial growth of Brunei and lessen dependence on oil and gas.
He said Pulau Muara Besar would be developed by Surbana Consortium of Singapore, while its port operations would be managed by the International Container Terminal Services Inc. of the Philippines (ICTSI). Both won in the international bidding.
The Manila-based ICTSI operates 16 ports in 11 countries.
