Episode 3: A Closer Look at Brunei

The third episode of the series brings us to the Sultanate Brunei located on the island Borneo in maritime Southeast Asia. Since the discovery of petroleum resources in the 1920s, Brunei’s economy has largely been dependent on gas and oil revenues, making it one of the highest per capita income countries in Asia. More recently, in a drive to diversify the economy, Brunei’s government strove to develop other sectors, including agriculture.

In a state where most people are government employees, what sort of government bodies are there? What are the government’s strategies to diversify the economy? What are the latest developments in the agricultural sector? And what sort of job opportunities exist for younger generations?

For this, we take on the perspective of the Legislative Council Member Iswandy Ahmad and agricultural entrepreneur Dr. Vanessa Teo. After a brief introductory presentation of the country, the speakers will share their view on the country's potential, where they see the biggest challenges, and discuss the government’s as well as entrepreneurial activities in the agricultural sector, followed by a Q&A session. This episode will be moderated by Simona Grano, Senior Lecturer at the University of Zurich and Director of the Taiwan Studies Project at UZH.

“A Closer Look” is a 5-part series by the Asia Society Switzerland, the Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies of the University of Zurich, and the Schweizerische Asiengesellschaft, shedding light on different Asian countries through the eyes of leading local voices. Season 1 covers Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan, Brunei, Bangladesh and Bhutan. See all episodes here.

The Honourable Iswandy Ahmad is a Member of the Legislative Council of Brunei as Person who has Achieved Distinction. He regularly delivers capacity-building programs for leadership development for young Brunei leaders and is an active advocate in civil society. Among his voluntary social contribution are HIV & AIDS work on awareness & advocacy, youth mentorship, and employability among job seekers. He is also the Lead Trainer at Perspective Insan Academy (P.I), a capacity-building consultancy. In his role as a Member of the Legislative Council, among his area of policy interests are social enterprise, youth engagement, NGOs, socio-economic development, and volunteerism.

Dr. Vanessa Teo is the Founder of Agrome, an agriculture technology platform that provides digital farm certifications to ensure farm product quality and safety. She pursued her doctorate degree specializing in rice crop modeling and agricultural systems modeling. Her PhD research focused on utilizing modeling systems and algorithms to support in rice farming system optimization in Brunei. Her research was conducted in collaboration with the University of Brunei Darussalam, IBM ResearchLab New Delhi, Bangalore, Brazil and the USA and the Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources, Brunei.

Simona A. Grano is Senior Lecturer at the University of Zurich (UZH) and Director of the Taiwan Studies Project at UZH. She completed her Ph.D. in Chinese Studies at Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Italy. She has held research positions and taught China Studies  and Taiwan Studies at her alma mater, at the University of Zurich in Switzerland and at the National Cheng'chi University in Taiwan. She has also been a visiting scholar at the University of Hong Kong and is a research fellow of the European Research Center on Contemporary Taiwan (ERCCT), in Tübingen, Germany as well as a research associate of SOAS for the year 2021. Simona's regional expertise centers on the People's Republic of China as well as on Taiwan and Hong Kong. She is the author of Environmental Governance in Taiwan: a new generation of activists and stakeholders, which has been published in 2015 by Routledge. Her new co-edited monograph titled Civil Society and the State in Democratic East Asia: Between Entanglement and Contention in Post High Growth (Amsterdam University Press, 2020) analyzes the dichotomy between civil society and the state in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.