Afterword

Although examined in some of the foregoing chapters, here we continue with the discourse on the future of the Chinese as an ethnic minority in Brunei, in particular on the question of their future . With increasingly declining birth rate in the last decade, the ever-shrinking minority seemed to be heading towards demographic insignificance. Comprising less than 10% of the total population of the sultanate of less than half a million, quantitatively, the Chinese are inconsequential. Nevertheless, economically, the ethnic Chinese are relevant, and to some extent remained important in the non-oil sector of the economy. Their participation as ‘Managers & senior officials’ (30.20%), ‘Technicians & Associate Professionals’ (15.73 %), and ‘Professionals’ (13. 60%) where the percentile in parenthesis denotes the share to the total number of personnel, the Chinese evidently remained significant in their role and contributions (see Table 1.9 ).