In the beginning of 2017, China and Brunei joined forces in a joint petrochemical venture, resulting in the Hengyi Industries Sdn Bhd. The project is located on a small island close to the Bruneian capital of Bandar Seri Begawan, Pulau Muara Besar (PMB).
Under China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the 3.5 billion US dollar investment marks Brunei’s largest foreign direct investment. Due to this project, Brunei’s GDP is expected to create over 1,600 jobs and increase the small country’s GDP by a 1.33 billion US dollar estimate.
CEO of Hengyi Industries Sdn Bhd, Chen Liancai, states that the project is being developed over time, in two separate stages. The first stage takes place on a 276 hectare land, with a total investment of USD 3.45 billion while the second stage will take an approximate of USD 12 billion in the second part of the development project.
In the main stage of the task, it has a yearly handling limit of 8,000,000 tons of unrefined petroleum and can condensate and produce around 1.5 million tons of paraxylene, 500,000 tons of benzene just as refined items, for example, gas, fly fuel and diesel. The unrefined petroleum required for the undertaking will be given incompletely by Brunei, while the rest will be imported from encompassing oil-creating nations.
Hengyi Businesses Sdn Bhd is a joint endeavor between China’s Zhejiang Hengyi Group and Damai Holdings, a wholly-owned subsidiary under the Bruneian government’s Strategic Development Capital Fund, claiming 70 percent and 30 percent of the offers individually.
The venture exemplifies the effective usage of “Chinese norms” abroad.
“This is a lead venture under the system of the Belt and Road Initiative participated between the two nations,” said Chen, “the task conforms to Chinese guidelines, planning, development, and assembling, practically all from China.”
Chen further explained that they were most relieved to have finally completed the first stage of development with zero setbacks in the entire procedure, with more than 14,000 representatives on the PMB island where the Bruneian government has recognised China’s productivity.
The oil and gas industry is the backbone of Brunei’s national financial structure, yet a pool of expert talent is usually shallow which is why Brunei is pushing forward the restriction of the venture and the production of a large number of work opportunities.
To this end, Hengyi has assisted in training the local talent, for example, financing qualified understudies from the Brunei College to examine the chemical engineering building at Zhejiang College in China and employ them under their wing after graduation.
At present, there are five clusters, an aggregate of 80 understudies that have entered the “Hengyi Petrochemical Talent Class”. “The initial scarcely any clusters of understudies have just begun their work at Hengyi Businesses here in Brunei,” said Chen.
Chen concludes that presently, five batches are with them, an aggregate of 80 understudies that have entered the “Hengyi Petrochemical Talent Class”, with the initial batch of understudies recently beginning their work in Brunei, at the Hengyi Industries office.
What’s more, the culmination of this project will certainly help the Bruneian economy free its reliance on oil and gas exploration, promoting a more diversified economy to improve the nation’s financial structure, in accordance with the Brunei Vision 2035 proposed by the Bruneian government.
Source: People’s Daily Online