Diversifying the Economy

Abstract

As the preceding chapter has emphasised, economic development in Brunei has depended to an inordinate degree on the revenue benefits of the hydrocarbon industry. In an attempt to reduce the heavy reliance on oil and gas revenues and returns from overseas investments, development policies in the fourth, fifth and sixth national development plans have focused on the need for economic diversification. Planners now accept that the long term growth of the economy depends on a more diversified economic base. With most of the state’s food needs, machinery and equipment, intermediate materials and even labour being imported, the problems of such external dependency have become increasingly acute.