Call To Invest More In Human Capital And Nurture Competitiveness
By Azlan Othman in Singapore

Bandar Seri Begawan - Dato Dr Richard Leete, UNDP Resident Representative Malaysia. Singapore and Brunei, underscored the need for Brunei to review its subsidies which may be a hard decision to make, to enhance its GDP which is not growing despite a rise in oil prices. Brunei also needs to nurture more sense of hunger and competitiveness and not to take life too easily.

He also spoke on Brunei's plan to be in top 10 among the nations of the world. He called for the importation of foreign talent to the Sultanate. He was referring to Brunei's goals highlighted in the Brunei Vision 2035 in which the nation is recognised by the accomplishments of its educated and highly skilled people, quality of life among the top 10 nations of the world and income per capital within the top 10 nations of the world.

"It is virtually impossible for Brunei. It's a competitive race. To leapfrog other countries requires a big increase in education. Brunei has high human development and millennium development goals. Compared to the top five countries, Brunei's achievements in health are exemplary, education and per capita GDP, however, are lagging.

Singapore's experience suggests that with human capital investments in knowledge, innovation and ideas, leapfrogging the other countries are possible.

Under the human development index which is a composite index employed by the UN DP for measuring key dimensions of human capabilities, Brunei is below Singapore hut well ahead o (Malaysia. Statistical indicators used by HDI are life expectancy at birth, adult literacy and gross enrolment in primary, secondary and tertiary levels and per capita GDP.

This was highlighted during the panel discussion at the Brunei Forum held at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) in Singapore. The panelists were Dato Dr Richard Leete, Prof A Mani, Associate Senior Fellow, ISEAS, and Prof Johan Saravanamuttu, Visiting Senior Research Fellow, ISEAS.

Earlier Minister of Education, Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Lela Dato Seri Setia Ass ana Haji Abdul Rahman Falb delivered a speech entitled "Developing Human Resources for the Challenges of the 21st Century".

In 2007, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) reported that Brunei was in the 301I place out of 177 nations in the UNDP's Human Development Index, an improvement of three places from the 2004 ranking.

Meanwhile Prof Mani called on Brunei to internationalise its tertiary education by bringing in more foreign students and to leverage migrant talents to go global. "It's up to Brunei to control the percentage of the migrant talent", he said.  -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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