Bandar Seri Begawan - iCentre invites members of the public who want their own start-up businesses to participate in Ignite Business Plan Awards 2012. With 3 weeks to go, the competition has received a good number of business plans.

Farah Ahmadnawi, Corporate Communication Officer, iCentre, in a press release stated that "the primary role of iCentre having this Ignite Business Plan Awards is to promote entrepreneurship in Brunei. They are vital to the progress of the country's growth and contribute to the improvement to the economy".

"Brunei has the opportunity to position itself as a business and commercial hub in Asia. This is where iCentre play its role and one of the main objectives of Ignite Business Plan Awards," she said.

She added that "Ignite serves as a platform to identify and encourage local entrepreneurs to develop business ideas in the field of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and bring the products or services into the market. There is an abundance of creativity and innovative ideas in Brunei, and we recognised the high potentials of Bruneians starting their own ICT businesses".

Coming into its fifth consecutive year, the Ignite Business Plan Competition, having grown bigger over the years and having built a community of ICT entrepreneurs' in the region, is now focusing back into its roots to drive the participation of the youth.

Among the successful outcomes of the Ignite Business Plan Award is the increase of local entrepreneurs who have made a name for themselves not only in local market, but also has put Brunei on the global map.

The competition which was launched last July grants B$20,000 as the grand prize, the biggest prize money for a business plan competition in Brunei Darussalam.

ICentre continues its proud tradition ofpreparing the participants prior to finalising their business plans before submission by providing workshops to gain insights and groom their entrepreneurial skills.

There have been an increasing number of participants for the Ignite workshops compared to last year.

The competition is sub-divided into three categories: open category for PR and residents only, the international category and college/student category.

Last year saw more than 70 executive summary submissions with additional summaries that couldn't make it to the submission deadline, indicating the competition's increasing interest from the public.

This year iCentre has added a new award, the 'Most Innovative Award' to recognise potentials with the most outstanding and creative business plans where they stand a chance to win B$3,000.

Also, this year the Business Plan Award has attracted Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) and AITI as partners along with the support of Brunei Economic Development Board (BEDB), Microsoft and Asia Inc Forum.

Corporate communication officer Farah Ahmadnawi further said, "If you have a passion to become entrepreneurs, we highly recommend this competition for you. This is your time to shine and step into the world entrepreneurial possibilities. You might just become Brunei's Mark Zuckerberg one day!".

For more information, interested participants can visit ignite.icentre.biz or follow their Facebook page iCentre Brunei and Twitter @iCentre_Brunei.

--Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin