Microsoft Representative Lauds Brunei's Drive Against Copyright Piracy
By Azaraimy HH

Bandar Seri Begawan - Copyright piracy is better fought by educating the people rather than by continuous enforcement.

This was stated by Mr Faycal Bouchlahem, General Manager of Microsoft South East Asia New Markets during an interview with the Bulletin on Monday.

Mr Bouchlahem, representing software giant Microsoft Corporation, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Hj Mahmud bin Hj Mohd - Daud, Director of Information Technology and State Stores.

The MoU sealed a six-year partnership that would enable close digital inclusion and technological progress.

During the interview held after the signing of the MoU, Mr Bouchlahem commented on the effort of the Brunei government in establishing a copyright law on intellectual property.

He said that the copyright law is a good step towards building the IT industry in Brunei.

He also spoke of the potential in localising Microsoft products for Brunei, for instance developing Microsoft Office in the local language.

However, he said, in case of Brunei there is no need to reinvent the wheel in localising Microsoft products, as Brunei can learn from Malaysia and Indonesia in localising such products like the Microsoft Office.

Under the MoU, both-parties have agreed to negotiate the potential scope of cooperation in the area of ICT, ongoing collaboration discussions and other areas of possible collaboration in the local ICT ecosystem such - as e-Government, education, software localization programme, solution marketplace, human resources capacity-building and up-to-date security best practices in the cyber environment.

Mr Bouchlahem said there are mainly three areas of collaboration, such as in the area of Education, for example in terms of partnering with the Ministry of Education in training and assistance on matters such as the IT Curriculum.

The second area would be e-Government solutions. Microsoft, he said, will also be able to assist the government in terms of e-Government solutions and help in the deployment of the e-Government solutions.

The third area of collaboration will be around building the ICT ecosystem, said Mr Bouchlahem. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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