Opinion, ICT, Competition, Brunei, Asia-Pacific: Brunei must not fall behind in a globalised and highly competitive world. And ICT is the lever to keep up with the pace. Brunei Communications Mininster Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Kerna Dato Seri Setia Haji Awang Abu Bakar took this as his theme when addressing CSPS-UBD Policy Forum 2007. Minister Bakar's key conclusions are ...

Using his opportunity as keynote speaker at the CSPS-UBD (Centre for Strategic and Policy Studies-University Brunei Darussalam) Policy Forum 2007, Brunei Minister of Communications Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Kerna Dato Seri Setia Haji Awang Abu Bakar explained the challenges his country faces: “Brunei Darussalam has to effectively use ICT as a leverage to sharpen its competitive edge and not be left behind in the global race. Our development policies should put greater emphasis on investment and financial allocation in this sector.

“In order to survive the future, we have to be on par with other developing and developed countries in the technological advancements which are spurring globalisation. We should build an egalitarian information society, a society where everyone is able to access, gain, share and exploit knowledge and information in order to maximise their potential and improve their quality of life.”

A full partnership based on trust within the government, private sector, stake-holder, NGO and civil communities was to be Brunei’s way forward: “The e-Government initiative should not be limited to delivering just electronic services. It should be extended to the wider concept of e-governance that incorporates information flow among the social, political and administrative system. Whatever model used in development planning or policies is irrelevant if we fail to develop effective and strategic implementation programmes.”

If it came to re-assessing Brunei’s status, that is, regarding her as a developing nation when looking at certain aspects of her development, the Minister advocated that this alternative view should be accepted: “We have already attained satisfactory levels of millennium development goals. We have to move on by providing significantly higher financial allocations for education, transportation, power, telecommunications and information technology sectors befitting our status as a developing nation.”

The Minister came to a number of conclusions when evaluating Brunei’s ICT future. The country’s task was to identify niches for economic development. This could be backed up by R&D, for which US$10 million has been allocated in the 2007/2008 budget.

Brunei’s national competitiveness and gearing up to a free trade environment could both be improved by speeding up private sector participation to hone competitiveness and prepare for a free trade environment. People were Brunei’s key to success: they had to “work together in sustaining the development of our country.”

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