By Dk Suria Rina PHA
The Brunei Economic Development
Board (BEDB) has recently released the statistics on the actual
labour force figure of Brunei Darussalam. The figure showed that
the proportion of working women is on the rise.
The 2001 Brunei Darussalam
Census indicated the population has grown 2.5 per cent in the
last ten years and that the total population figure stands at
332,844.
Out of the total population,
222,607 are in the 15-64 working age group and only 71 per cent
of them are in the active labour force. The figure also shows
that the number of women working in the country has increased by
26 per cent within the past ten years.
The Brunei Women Business
Council has reported that over 50 per cent of the SMEs in Brunei
are owned and run by women. In the last ten years, women have
become involved in businesses in areas of their expertise such
as beauty saloons, tailoring, restaurants and others. Others
women have embarked in industries like agriculture, fisheries
and shipping.
Brunei has also successfully
nurtured the talents of women and produced highly productive and
educated resources for the country.
In other ASEAN countries, women
too are doing their part in the economy. Countries like Vietnam
and Cambodia see that about half of the working force is female.
Other countries in the region have shown similar trends.
BEDB also stated that, based on
the 8th National Development Plan, 18,000 jobs are expected to
be created, most of it in wholesale and retail trade, hotels and
restaurants followed by the communication sector and finally the
transportation and storage sectors. Emphasis is placed on
ensuring that certain occupational categories, particularly in
the professional, managerial, semi-professional and technical
levels are assigned to locals
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