29 representatives from the Bruneian public and private sectors, attended an outreach event on the ASEAN Trade Repository (ATR, available at https://atr.asean.org) and the ASEAN Solutions for Investments, Services and Trade (ASSIST, available at https://assist.asean.org/) on 15 March 2022. The event was organized by the EU-funded programme ASEAN Regional Integration Support from the European Union (ARISE Plus), in partnership and collaboration with ASEAN BAC Brunei and DARe, and held virtually.
The participants were from the ASEAN Business Advisory Council (ASEAN-BAC), Darussalam Enterprise (DARe), National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NCCIBD), Brunei Malay Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DPPMB), French Bruneian Business Association (FBBA), SME business owners and many other trade associations and business organizations in Brunei Darussalam.
ARISE Plus is convening a series of outreach and training events across the region. The “ATR and ASSIST Outreach Event” in Bandar Seri Begawan is the fifth of these series. The objective of the ATR and ASSIST Outreach Events is to create greater awareness on the existence, functioning and trade facilitation benefits of the two primary trade facilitation instruments developed by ASEAN with support from ARISE Plus, known as ASSIST (for Trade in Goods and Trade in Services) and the ATR. This is deemed critical to showcase ASEAN’s increasing regulatory transparency in relation to trade in goods and build on that greater intra-ASEAN trade and trading opportunities.
Welcoming remarks were delivered by Mr. Thibaut Portevin, Head of Cooperation, Delegation of the European Union to ASEAN and Delegation of the European Union to Indonesia and Brunei Darussalam; Mr. Paul Mandl, Team Leader, ARISE Plus; Mr. Javed Ahmad, Chief Executive Officer, Darussalam Enterprise (DARe); and The Hon. FDr. Ar. Siti Rozaimeriyanty DSLJ Haji Abd Rahman, Brunei Chair of ASEAN Business Advisory Council (ASEAN BAC).
This Outreach Event is followed by the ‘ASSIST Train-the-Trainers Workshop’ on 16-17 March 2022. This training workshop is designed to benefit and help participants to develop, organize and deliver training modules on how to use ASSIST. Participants of the training workshop are expected to become trainers and conduct future capacity building exercises on ASSIST to the benefit of their Bruneian colleagues, members of their trade associations/business organizations, and fellow entrepreneurs.
