As a small country, both in size and population, our future hinges on the quality of our people.

Future peace, prosperity and confidence depend not just on ourselves but on the success of all nations. Hence, we are all partners, no matter what our backgrounds, cultures, faiths and histories.

The development of our human resources is an area in which we need to do well as it is decisive in determining the success of our diversification programme.

We are considering various ways of making use of our oil and gas downstream industries. This is to be complemented with the import of oil and gas from other sources as raw materials.

We will host the Asean summit in November this year. It will be an occasion to reflect on our achievements collectively and to look at how Asean can maintain its leading role in regional and international cooperation.

There are no limits to our future if we don't put limits on our people.