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Sultanate's Service Hub 2024 Vision
By Izam S. Ya'akub & Sonia K.

Bandar Seri Begawan - The Ministry of Communications has adopted a vision "Service Hub 2024", which aims for not just the creation of a growing and self-sustaining domestic transport and communication industry but as well as making Brunei as a competitive, efficient and significant regional service hub.

The Minister of Communications, Pehin Dato Hj Awang Abu Bakar bin Haji Apong, stated this in his opening address during yesterday's seminar on Public Private Partnerships in Infrastructure Development: The case for introducing Foreign Direct Investment at the Empire Hotel and Country Club.

"This is particularly important in our efforts to create an advanced Information Society and transform Brunei into a knowledge-economy supported by modem transport and communications infrastructure," said the minister, who was the guest of honour.

To realise this vision, the mission of the ministry is the "provision of a safe, efficient, accessible and secured transport and communications services" or SEAS, added the minister.

He also spoke about the need to adopt an outward looking policy and actions to link Brunei to the international community through the transport and communications

infrastructure and the same time bridge the BIMP-EAGA region to the rest of the world through Brunei.

"Among others, Brunei will aggressively pursue liberalisation of air transport by entering into open sky agreements with all Asean members to realise the creation of an 'Asean Economic Community' envisioned by its leaders," said Pehin Hj Awang Abu Bakar.

The minister pointed out that in the next 20 years, the general direction of the Ministry of Communications and its departments would be to continue and complete shifting its main roles from a combination of tasks that include provision of public services, building and operating infrastructure to solely responsible for policy setting, regulatory and facilitation of-business and

"Provision of services would' be transferred to the private sector who is more business focused ... the ministry and its departments would focus on providing a conducive legal and regulatory environment that is flexible, responsive and which can promote innovation and creativity," he added.

The minister said he believes the answer to our economic diversification and to our future growth and development is for both the public and private sectors to synergise our strengths and weaknesses and work together as a corporation.

While the public sector provides the facilitative policy and the infrastructure environment, the private sector has to respond to that environment towards striving for optimal growth and development, he said and added.

"The Government has committed to continuously create the right public policy, the incentive structures and other infrastructure which can enhance the public-private sectors cooperation.

The minister-also said, "We want to realize the strategy of making the private sector as the engine of growth through enhancing their ability to identify and realise market opportunities."

Earlier, the Ambassador of Japan to Brunei, Mr Yoshinobu Nisaka, while delivering the opening remarks, said it is essential to understand how an investor selects a country for their investment and that the relevant organisations of a country must fine-tune their policies so that they present a suitable match for investors who are going through the decision making process.

The first session of the seminar entitled "The Locus of the Infrastructure Development in Japan", started with Mr Kengo Mizuno, a consultant at the Nomura Research Institute, who examined the current trend of Japanese private companies and about infrastructure, as well as discussing how it can contribute to the private sector and issues for the public sector.

Awang Hj Idris Hj Abas, CEO and Principal Architect at Arkitek Idris, spoke on the Brunei perspective and was moderated by Mr Allen Lai, CEO of-Asia-Inc-Forum.

The next session's keynote address under the topic "The decisive factor: What attracts investment?" was delivered by Senior Managing Director of Fujitsu Research Institute Mr Risaburo Nezu, moderated by Hj Shazali Dato Hj Sulaiman, who is a partner of KPMG and was panelled by Dato Hj Hamdilah Hj Wahab, Deputy Minister of Industry and Primary Resources, and Mr Glen Rase, Vice President and Citigroup Country Officer of Citibank. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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