Business Culture Needs Minds Change
By Shareen Han

Bandar Seri Begawan - The move to create a thriving business culture in Brunei has met with a low success rate and the commitment of young entrepreneurs is to be blamed.

Businessman Muhammad Nasrul Hakim Hj Osman said today's young entrepreneurs do not make enough effort to improve themselves and achieve success.

"When youths fail in an undertaking, their confidence is easily lowered and quite often they lose interest in pursuing their projects," said Muhammad Nasrul, the project manager of Syarikat Kota Sdn Bhd.

"It is difficult to develop confidence and self-belief but they need to understand that things do not come easy," he said.

Dr Habrizah Hussin, a senior lecturer at Universiti Brunei Darussalam, said that promoting a passion for enterprise and entrepreneurship was one of the ways of addressing the situation.

In her award-winning research paper from the Asean Graduate Business/Economics Programme's academic seminar recently, she pointed out that "a firm policy commitment at the government and ministerial level is absolutely necessary to promote learning about entrepreneurship".

Brunei needs to provide a better environment as well as promote a more positive attitude towards business enterprises, because lifetime job security is a thing of the past, she added.

She also highlighted the underlying, fact that the "entrepreneurial human capital is more important than factors such as industry composition, labour market conditions and infrastructure establishment".

She said: "Brunei requires a transition from a `managed' economy to an `entrepreneurial' economy where dynamism, innovation and enterprise are central features."

She explained that there is a link between economic performance and cultural values, and an effective economic strategy for Brunei would have to begin in the, cultural sphere.

"An enterprising cultural shift is essential to make this transition," she added.

Robin Leong, managing director of Growingstar, a furniture shop, also said that the role of the, government is important in promoting an, entrepreneurial spirit in the country.

He said that there is a lack of entrepreneurial culture in Brunei as youths do not have the "desire to know". He added, "Locals are slow in taking up the challenge of running their own business, as most prefer working in the government, because it is a steady job."

He said that foreign expertise was necessary to fill in the gaps which are left by locals who do not wish to venture in the business environment.

The schemes, and programmes which are available for youths to explore various business opportunities are not fully utilised, said Robin.

"There are youth that participate in Livewire's business programmes, but the success rate is not significant enough because after taking part with Livewire, they still go looking for government jobs," he said.

Livewire Brunei is a Brunei Shell sponsored community programme created to raise the interest of youths to venture into the business field and become the country's future entrepreneurs through training activities.

"People have different expectations and efforts to change mindsets must take note of that," he said. -- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

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