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Laying The ICT Infra Of Brunei
By Helena M. Mahathir

Bandar Seri Begawan - One of the four critical success factors for e-business development, as a key driver towards realizing an information society, is putting telecommunications and IT or ICT infrastructure into place.

Thus, the Brunei Government has allocated a total of B$526 million or almost 7.2% of the total development budget under the 8th National Development Plan (2001-2005) to provide basic IT infrastructure.

"This serves as a step towards the establishment of modern and sophisticated IT facilities and service networks," said the Minister of Communications, Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Kerna Dato Seri Setia Hj Awg Abu Bakar bin Hj Apong, during the official launch of Microsoft Market Development Partner (MDP) at the Royal Berkshire Hall in Jerudong Park Country Club yesterday.

With the placing of a fully advanced digital network infrastructure - the Next Generation Networks, or NGN - in Brunei Darussalam, Pehin Dato Haji Awang Abu Bakar hopes to see more new developments in ICT in the next 5 years with the 9th National Development Plan 2006-2010 coming into place, "particularly in our efforts to develop the e-business sector in the country".

"The second success factor for e-business development is for an enabling environment to be in place.

This has also been highlighted in the recent NASIS (National Summit on Information Society) where among the issues that are necessary for e-business to strive include privacy protection, consumer trust, protection of intellectual property rights and creating a trustworthy, transparent, non-discriminatory legal, regulatory and policy environment," Pehin Dato Haji Awang Abu Bakar said.

Pehin Dato Haji Awang Abu Bakar went on to say that Content Development is another key success factor towards national e-business development, whereby in most parts of the world, content industries, software, music, computer games, broadcasting and the like represent powerful examples of the shift from the manufacture of physical items to the manufacture of high value intangibles.

"I believe these are becoming the drivers of the ICT software and e-business industry," Pehin Dato Haji Awang Abu Bakar said.

The fourth critical success factor underlined by the Ministerof Communications is the ICT-skilled manpower or ICT talent. "Skills are becoming important for us all.

This is recognized in the Strategy Paper recommended by NASIS in which capacity building of human resources through education and training are all very essential not only in building e-business capable firms but to the overall society," the minister stressed.

"In short, it is paramount in fuelling an e-literate community of people who will become competitive and highly demanded in the local and global market," he added.

With a current recorded statistics of about 10 ICT training centers and less than 200 ICT local companies in the country, PehinDato Haji Awang Abu Bakar expressed his hope that better figures are achieved in the next few years.

Thus he urged local companies and their foreign partners to give serious attention to human capacity building in ICT - by engaging and utilizing local talents and graduates, and develop their potential to the fullest. "In this way you will also be able to provide employment opportunities to the locals," Pehin Dato Haji Awang Abu Bakar said.

This was followed by the signing of contracts between MDP (B) Sdn Bhd and Microsoft, whereby MDP is the Authorized Market Development Partner of Microsoft in the Sultanate.

Signing on behalf of MDP (B) Sdn Bhd was its Managing Director, Pengiran Anak Haji Muhd Basheer bin Pengiran Indera Mahkota Pengiran Anak (Dr.) Kemaludin (Al-Haj), whereby Microsoft was represented by Mr Faycal Bouchlagbem, General Manager - New Markets, South East Asia. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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