Brunei is a high-income country, one of only two in Southeast Asia. Brunei’s roughly $17 billion GDP (2022) makes up 0.5% of the region’s GDP, and it has by far the smallest population at just 449,000. Per capita GDP in 2022 was $37,152, the second-highest in the region behind Singapore. Brunei ranks 55th out of 193 countries on the Human Development Index, closer to the upper-middle income countries of Malaysia and Thailand than to Singapore.
Brunei’s economy is heavily dependent on oil and natural gas, which accounted for 51.7% of GDP in 2022. Its natural resources have provided substantial revenue and high earnings from exports since independence in 1984, but this reliance has exposed the economy to shocks such as the Covid-19 pandemic and fluctuations in commodities prices. There are ongoing efforts to diversify the economy, improve quality of life, and increase GDP, articulated in the Wawasan Brunei 2035 master plan.
Despite its relative wealth, Brunei contributes very little to intra-regional official development finance (ODF). Brunei provides development finance outside Southeast Asia, most notably via capital holdings in the Islamic Development Bank, contributions to the Central Emergency Response Fund, and financial support to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
Within the region, Brunei made an annual contribution to the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management amounting to $512,000 from 2015 to 2022. In this period, it also disbursed ODF on two other occasions: a $100,000 grant in 2018 to aid flood victims in Laos, and a donation of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines worth $9227 to the Philippines in 2021.
Brunei is also a recipient of ODF. Between 2015 and 2022, it received $994 million, averaging $124 million annually. China contributed 99.7% of this sum, largely due to loans from China Development Bank and Export–Import Bank of China to finance energy projects.
There was minimal spending on either climate or gender development in Brunei.