His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam arrived in Kuwait yesterday morning to attend the First Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) on October 16 and 17.

Present at the Kuwait International Airport to greet His Majesty were Sheikh Ali Al-Jarrah Al-Sabah, Acting Minister of Amiri Diwan Affairs of Kuwait; Mr Khalid Mohamed Al-Mughames, Head of Honorary Mission and officers from the Government of Kuwait.

His Majesty consented to pass through a static guard mounted by the Amiri Guards, Bayan Palace before boarding the motorcade towards the Regency Hotel where His Majesty will stay throughout the summit.

Also present at the Kuwait International Airport was Pg Hj Mustapa bin Pg Hj Aliuddin, Ambassador of Brunei Darussalam to Kuwait.

Upon arrival at the hotel, His Majesty was greeted by Aurelio Giraudo, the General Manager of the hotel and staff.

Kuwait hosts the first ACD Summit in which Heads of State, Heads of Government and Heads of Delegation from 32 countries will attend.

Among others, ACD seeks to consolidate the strengths and competitiveness of Asia so as to maximise the potential of Asia's rich and diverse resources.

ACD also hopes to discuss on how its member states can effectively confront regional and global challenges, including the current economic crises; food and energy security; climate change and natural disasters; and to effectively establish common efforts in confronting the challenges ahead.

"The summit will discuss ways to activate the ACD, a mechanism to make it permanent and activate implementation of decisions," Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Khaled Al-Sabah told a news conference, AFP reported.

Founded in Thailand in 2002, the ACD has a membership of 32 nations including China, Japan, India and South Korea in addition to major oil producers in the Gulf, Iran and Russia.

"It is necessary to move forward to an advanced stage. This will be achieved if the summit approves a joint Thai-Kuwait proposal to make the ACD permanent with a secretariat," said Sheikh Sabah.

Thai Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul said the October 16-17 summit will discuss a variety of issues including energy supply, food security, financing of projects, IT and human resources development among others.

The summit would review promotion of investments especially the role of sovereign wealth funds to invest in other Asian nations which have the potential, he said. - Borneo Bulletin (16 October 2012)