Japan expertise can help Brunei on eco issues

BRUNEI'S industries can benefit from Japan's technological knowhow in resolving environmental issues, said Tadao Iguchi, Director at the Japan Environmental Management Association for Industry's (Jemai) Centre for Environmental Education and Training.

Speaking at the closing ceremony of the seminar on "Environmental Management: The Brunei Initiative" yesterday at Seameo Voctech, Iguchi said Brunei has a vast range of rainforests, and in this regard Jemai can be of great help.

Brunei can learn from Japan's experience of tackling pollution. The steps taken by Japan to curb pollution can help Brunei overcome the environmental problems in the future.

This will help Brunei industries (to be cleaner and environment-friendly) and will benefit those interested in environmental issues, he said.

If Brunei industries were to adopt environment-friendly technologies, even though these industries were still in their nascent stage, Brunei can contribute to the worldwide reduction of carbon emissions, said Iguchi.

Dr Azaharaini Mohd Jamil, former executive director of the Centre for Strategic and Policy Studies (CSPS), said that relevant departments can make use of some of the technologies to reduce emissions but added that it was only applicable to production agencies.

"There are not many producing and manufacturing agencies in Brunei, otherwise the technologies would be very useful," he said, adding that manufacturing agencies would find the technologies useful to reduce environmental impact from their industrial activities.

He said that the seminar, organised to promote and strengthen relations between Japan and Brunei, was very useful in terms of providing new knowledge and technology, particularly in trying to resolve environmental issues.

"This seminar provides a very good platform for exchanging ideas. In fact, it should be further disseminated to the school level," he said.

On the possibility of including new topics in similar seminars in future, Dr Azaharaini said that it would depend on the kind of industrial activities Brunei will have. With Japan's advancement in technology, the application varies depending on the type of problems that need to be resolved, such as applying specific technologies to reduce environmental impacts on air, water or land.

He added that a seminar focusing on new environmental issues would be relevant if there were new factories or new industrial activities in Brunei. Perhaps another similar seminar (like this one) is needed to discover what other countries are doing with respect to new environmental issues, said Dr Azaharaini.

The three-day environmental management seminar was sponsored by the Japanese Government and co-organised by Jemai, the Embassy of Japan in Brunei and Seameo Voctech.

The seminar was divided into two sessions, first for the public and the second and final day was reserved for specialists and businesses.

The seminar featured 18 working paper presentations. (RSH1)

The Brunei Times