Marketing Issues Major Concern To SMEs
By Lyna Mohamad

Bandar Seri Begawan - Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Brunei have indicated to us on many occasions that marketing is one of their major concerns.

This has been verified by a survey conducted by the Institute Technology of Brunei Business and Management Department in January 2001, which indicated that 48% of the SME respondents cited marketing as one of the major problems they faced.

This was yesterday said by Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources Dato Paduka Hj Mohd Ham id Hj Mohdjaafar during the official opening of a two-day workshop on 'Development of Marketing Services for Brunei SMEs.

SMEs often lack the knowledge to explore the niche markets for their products, the entrepreneurs often don't have the appropriate skills, and they don't know where to look for reliable information about market development.

It was also learnt that the small market size, market development and promotion, lack of market information, trade and market barriers were among the critical issues faced by SM ES in marketing.

"As an agency tasked with assisting SMEs, we have to address the needs of SM Es. Thanks to the technical and financial support of the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation, the project was implemented a year ago," the permanent secretary said.

The main part of the research was completed in June last year with publication of the workshop documents that outlined the preliminary findings of its investigation.

Pointing out that the three objectives of the study, the survey and other research activities were only part of the project, results of the earlier study need to be disseminated and deliberated on by the relevant stakeholders in order for the consultants to provide more relevant and realistic recommendations to provide marketing support services to the SMEs.

Highlighting that the workshop is thus critical for successful completion of the study, he encouraged everyone to partake actively in the various workshop sessions so that the outcome could truly be beneficial.

The permanent secretary also emphasised on a number of points in regards to developing Brunei SMEs.

He pointed out that as SMEs constitute around 98% of all business establishment in the country, they are an important partner in achieving economic diversification and a significant contributor to socio-economic development. The importance of SMEs and their contributions were recognised by the monarch in his 61st birthday titah.

Secondly, the government will continue to take steps to assist SMEs to become credible players in national economic activities.

Thirdly, the government will continue in its efforts to create opportunities for Brunei SMEs. This includes the BEDB-led methanol project which will create business opportunities for SMEs.

Fourthly, another area that they are committed to is improving the delivery of public services, especially to the business community. By reducing business cost, it is believed that it will further encourage more businesses and foreign direct investments.

Lastly, they will continue with the 'Private-Public Partnership' approach in achievening economic diversification.

The MIPR role is to engage and to work hard in partnership with stakeholders in developing and successfully implementing various policies and programmes that will lead to the realisation of their shared vision for Brunei to be 'A Diversified, Competitive and Sustainable Economy.'

"We at MIPR have launched the e-MIPR initiative that will serve as a platform for improving support services to the business community in Brunei.

"The e-MIPR is still a work in progress, but one of its components is the Business Facilitation Services which is to enable users to apply for services directly under the Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources online," he said.  -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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