BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN - China and Brunei saw their bilateral trade volume rise 72.5 percent last year, ranking top among China's ASEAN partners, Chinese Ambassador to Brunei Yu Hong said on Saturday.

During the awards ceremony of the Logo Design Competition for the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Brunei and China, Yu said that China and Brunei enjoy a long history of friendly exchanges and a good relationship that dates back to as early as 2000 years ago when the Maritime Silk Road brought the two peoples together.

"On Sept 30, 1991, our two countries officially established diplomatic relations, heralding a new chapter of bilateral friendship," the ambassador said.

"The past 30 years have witnessed deepening cooperation and closer ties between the two countries. Bilateral trade volume increased from $719 million in 2016 to $1.91 billion in 2020. In particular, bilateral cooperation grew against all the odds in 2020, with trade volume up by 72.5 percent, ranking first among ASEAN countries," she said.

China's investment in Brunei covers a multitude of areas, which has not only contributed to oil and gas downstream industries, and improvement of port operation efficiency and local employment, but also help boost Brunei's efforts in achieving the targets of economic diversification, digital Brunei and healthy Brunei, the ambassador added.

"Since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, the two countries have shown sympathy and support to each other and carried out effective cooperation in epidemic control. When most countries were facing severe vaccine shortages, China donated vaccines to Brunei despite its strong domestic demand, which fully reflects the solidarity and profound friendship between our two countries," Yu said.

"Through the joint efforts of both sides, the China-Brunei relationship has become a model of equality and mutual benefit between large and small countries," the ambassador said.