Brunei beckons India’s pharma, tourism industries

India’s pharmaceutical and tourism industries should take a look at the Sultanate of Brunei Darussalam, where the two areas hold immense potential for partnership. The island nation of 4 lakh people, located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia, is home to some of the world’s virgin rainforests with mega biodiversity. It hosts thousands of species of flowering plants, palms, ferns, orchids, mosses, lichens and liverworts.

Bio prospectors have discovered a wide variety of chemicals in the flora of these tropical forests. The Borneo rainforests are some of the oldest in the world and are a reservoir of genetic diversity which offers a rich source of medicinal plants, high-yield foods, and other useful forest products. Scientists from around the world are coming to Brunei to discover beneficial chemicals or compounds that occur naturally and which have huge scientific and medical applications.

The government has identified the sultanate’s rich biodiversity and educated workforce as key factors in promoting research and development (R&D) and attracting overseas investors to partner in projects. Thus, the forestry department is going ahead with plans for a biotechnology industry to develop pharmaceuticals from the microbes found in the rainforests.

Japan-based National Institute of Technology and Evaluation (NITE) and Bruneian scientists are researching the possibilities of using microbes for pharmaceutical purposes. China and Germany are looking to partner Brunei in pharmaceuticals culled from the Sultanate’s diverse plant life.

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