Japan eyes local handicraft
By James Kon

MIPR's Pg Metali bin Pg Hj Damit (centre), workshop speaker Miss Yoko Kawaguchi (R) and Dayang Hjh Sarimbangun bte Safar (L) of Asean Japan Centre.

Brunei handicrafts have a big potential to penetrate the Japan market provided the producer can increase the quality of the product as well as marketing strategies, said a Japanese speaker conducting a workshop promoting local handicraft said yesterday.

Last September, four companies representing Brunei in the Tokyo Gift Fair and the Fukuoka Gift Fair had shown very promising results as many Japanese companies had shown interest in Brunei products, said Miss Yoko Kawaguchi, the president of Y's Worth.

She hopes that this year, Brunei will again participate in the fairs and expose their products overseas to gain international acceptance.

However, she said, Brunei's products are considerably more expensive than products from other Asean countries like Thailand and Indonesia. So there is a need for producers to try and lower the cost of production.

Twenty local small and medium entrepreneurs as well as government officials are learning on how to penetrate into the overseas market, especially Japan, in a workshop on promoting local handicraft products, which started yesterday morning .

Topics of the course, organised by the Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources (MIPR), include how to do business with Japan buyers, group discussion, outline of Japan market and case studies.

MIPR's head of Promotion and Entrepreneurial Development Division, Pengiran Metali Bin Pg Haji Damit, said the handicraft industry is driven by the skills and pattern of thoughts of the local people.

He said in Brunei Darussalam, the handicraft industry had received encouraging response from locals. It had existed many years and the quality of the handicraft products is comparable with those in overseas countries.

However, he urged entrepreneurs in the sector to continuously follow the fast pace of globalisation and the development of information and communications technology, which could influence the change of method in production as well as the taste of consumer.

He explained that as producer, we should try our best to maintain the identity, style, design and the pureness art of our products. And at the same time try to learn the trade and advantage of overseas businessmen especially in the issues of promotion.

He said the two-and-a-half-days workshop would touch on relevant topics and participants will be given the opportunities to express their problem in trying to sell their product through the group discussion session.

He reminded the participant to take advantage of the workshop as the government had spend a lot of effort and money in setting it up. He thanked the Asean Japan Centre for their assistance in supplying the material as well as the speaker for the workshop.

Also present was Dayang Hajah Sarimbangun Binti Safar, the representative of Asean Japan Centre based in Japan.

Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin