Where is BRUNEI located on the map?
The Brunei, long-form Sultanate of Brunei Darussalam is a small state located in the north of the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia. It shares the island with Malaysia and Indonesia. Its territory, cut in two parts, is bordered by the South China Sea and totally enclosed in the Malaysian state of Sarawak. It has been run since 1968 by Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah. A former British protectorate, he is one of five Commonwealth members with his own monarchy.
Brunei has an area of 5,765 km2. It has a land border of 381 km with Malaysia, a strip of territory cuts the country in two. Its coastline is 161 km long. The highest point of the country is at an altitude of 1,850 meters.
The economy of Brunei is based essentially on a single resource: hydrocarbons, and mainly oil, exploited in this country from 1929. The commercialization of this resource allows the country to achieve a significant annual growth (4.1% in 2001), which has an impact on the country’s human development: Brunei, which has an HDI of 0.865, is ranked 26th worldwide (out of 135 countries) in 2010. It has a per capita GDP of $ 31,800, a insignificant unemployment rate. Brunei is, according to the World Bank, one of the Asian countries where people can live best. Its debt in 2015 is 3.17%.
Although hospital care and schooling are free, taxes do not exist, Brunei society is more disparate than it seems. In fact, almost 20% of Bruneians live below the poverty line.
In recent years, the presence of foreigners and economic dynamism have helped to improve the status of women in the territory. Only 20% of them worked in 1971, they are 57% in 2012, of whom 28% are senior managers.
The Sultanate of Brunei has been part of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) since 1989. Brunei was a signatory to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1992 and is therefore part of the WTO since 1995.
In January 2014, the country is on the French list of tax havens.
The Brunei state has launched a policy facilitating the installation of foreign companies: free zones, tax exemption … In ten years, some fifty companies have already established themselves in Brunei. Since 2007, Brunei has also been trying to develop green tourism.
Unlike its neighbors (Malaysia, Indonesia), the sultanate has never encouraged the timber trade. Result: 75% of the territory is still occupied by the jungle.
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