Browsing by Autor "Marie-Sybille de Vienne"

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Brunei
(2023) Marie-Sybille de Vienne
The placing of energy under the direct authority of the Sultan, then the ministerial reshuffle of May 2022, marked the desire to better control the ministers in an increasingly changing international and energetic context, while redefining its security. The pandemic-induced economic crisis, which spared the Sultanate in 2020, hit it hard in 2021, resulting in the departure of some temporary workers. A sign of the times, the government has taken advantage of Brunei’s presidency of ASEAN to promote the creation of a regional Center for Climate Change, based in the Sultanate, and women occupy a growing place in the senior administration.
Brunei
(2024) Marie-Sybille de Vienne
The turbulence of the world has spared, as usual, the Bruneian micro-state that its government strives to preserve from the major international medias, despite some unprecedented upheavals at the Palace and the start of societal reforms such as a mandatory minimum wage. The precarious recovery of the sultanate's economic growth depends more and more on Chinese investment in downstream industries and infrastructures. Brunei nevertheless manages to remain on the razor's edge of a diplomacy of balance in an international context more and more unstable as illustrated by its position on the Ukraine’s and Gaza’s wars.
Brunei
(2022) Marie-Sybille de Vienne
After a lockdown of nearly 18 months, Brunei Darussalam slipped into recession in 2021 due to fluctuations in hydrocarbon prices and the sharp decline in downstream industries’ output, which might reverse in 2022. The budgetary deficit almost quadrupled in absolute terms over 2020/21, bringing it to 19.7% of GDP, a level that is now unsustainable. The economic downturn has hit a population clinging to the comforts dispensed by a welfare monarchy. This is all the more so since employment woes were palpable well before the start of the pandemic. Moreover, the number of temporary residents (i.e. immigrant workers) decreased by 8.6% in less than two years. Adding to the gloom were the difficulties of the ASEAN Chairmanship, which placed the sultanate in the midst of great turbulence following the coup in Myanmar, especially since the Bruneian authorities did not hesitate—with their usual discretion—to increase diplomatic pressure on the Burmese junta, both directly and through ASEAN channels.
Brunei Darussalam
(2021) Marie-Sybille de Vienne
Brunei distinguished itself by its early management of the pandemic, prohibiting as of 4 February any movement to the infected areas. A first case of covid-19 on 9 March, imported from Malaysia by participants in the Tablighi Jama’at rally, led to the closure of educational institutions and places of worship. On 7 May, Brunei launched the BruHealth app, which has a bar code that allows access to all shops and public spaces, which has proven to be very effective. Despite the implementation of the Islamic Penal Code in spring 2019, Brunei's diplomacy managed to preserve its partnerships: renewal in February of the defence agreement with the British and taking the ASEAN Presidency at the end of November. On 15 November 2020, Brunei joined the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). While Brunei’s economy is expected to grow slightly in 2020, its difficulties are likely to increase in the near future given the fall in oil and gas prices, all the more problematic since its finances have been in deficit since 2014.