<p>PONTIANAK - Several meetings were held in the first day of the 25th Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines Ministerial Meetings, East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) in 2022. One of the meetings was the BEBC meeting of the four countries in Mercure Hotel on Wednesday, November 23rd, 2022.

The delegates of BIMP-EAGA Business Council (BEBC) from Indonesia, Sayid Irwan stated that BEBC is a group of private sectors among the countries of BIMP-EAGA. Yesterday’s meeting discussed several obstacles faced by BEBC. One of the obstacles is the connectivity problem between the BIMP-EAGA member countries.

“Indonesia (a member of BIMP-EAGA) consists of four big islands: Sulawesi, Kalimantan, Maluku, Papua, which all of them have connectivity obstacles. Malaysia, Sabah, Sarawak, and Philippines are also separated. And Brunei is in the middle. We, in Kalimantan, also has a similar problem with connectivity, so it became our main point of discussion,” he stated.

Sayid added that there were other points discussed in the meeting. Other than connectivity, food basket and tourism were also discussed. However, he added that the discussion was not finished. In short, the businessmen from each country are expected to unite, and the government of each country can support BEBC.

“Those three points actually have many sub-points. In the future, food crisis is the main issue that we will face. In Indonesia, for example in Sulawesi, there are many provinces that can be used as a food basket,” he said.

Sayid assured that BEBC are ready to cooperate and support to overcome food crisis, especially in the East Asian. It depends on the collaboration with the government, considering that BEBC is a private sector. Meanwhile, the policy and regulation are still in the government’s authority.

“We, as the below player, hope for the support and help so we can play and be the strongest in the Asia, and if possible, to overcome the food crisis,” he said.