The subject of bilingualism is especially important in Bruni, a country with a multilingual population and a bilingual education policy, and it was felt that an international conference which examined bilingualism and bilingual education in a variety of 'development' contexts would be useful in reviewing and fine tuning of Bruneis' already existing policies. Accordingly, the special theme issue of a journal on multilingual issues focuses on the conference theme of the relationship between bilingualism and national economic development. They include: "An Overview of Language and Development" (Andrew Gonzalez); "Implementing Bilingualism: Brunei in Perspective" (John Edwards); "Multilingualism and Bilingual Education in Brunei Darussalam" (Gary Jones, Peter W. Martin, A. Conrad K. Ozog); "Bilingualism and National Development in Malaysia" (Ozog); "Two Tongue Tied: Bilingualism in Singapore" (Anne Pakir); "How Not To Embark on a Bilingual Education Policy in a Developing Nation: The Case of Nigeria" (J. A. Oladejo); "European Models of Bilingual Education: Practice, Theory, and Development" (Hugo Baetens Beardsmore); "Fostering Bilingualism and National Development through School Second Language Study" (Richard B. Baldauf, Jr.); "Planning English Language Acquisition in ESL and EFL Societies: Development and Maintenance of Languages and Cultures" (Bjorn H. Jernudd); and "The Hegemony of English in Science and Technology" (Robert B. Kaplan). (MSE)