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Minister of Communications officially launched Bank Islam Brunei Darussalam’s latest product – BIBD Online (Banking anytime, anywhere!). Click image to check BIBD Online

Minister of Communications looking at projectors at Netcom booth at TechXpo 11

Minister of Communications checking out b.mobile’s promotion

The Ideos S7 Slim.. 7″ Touch Screen, 720p HD, Android Froyo. Selling at BND 469 at b.mobile booth at Techxpo

Minister of Communications was introduced by Teledirectories on their latest product which is YP online and it can be access through smartphones soon

Shamsul Bahri Kamis, CEO of ITPSS (IT Protective Security Services) explaining the Web Quest competition to the Minister of Communications

Minister of Communications at Ten Ten booth

Richard of Acer showcasing the latest powerful Acer S3 Ultrabook

Minister of Communications still hunting for the right printer

Sunlit staff queueing up for food vouchers and they have worked very hard in setting up the booths

The iCentre booth was located quite far away

KFM having their own gimmicks where you can win prizes so stay tune to Kristal FM to find out how

Wanting your ideas to materialised? Then apply for the LEAP Program

This is ideal for start-up companies. If you are seeking capital or lacking the financial backing for your potential viable ideas, then I highly recommend you to apply for the Brunei Economic Development Board’s LEAP grant and the deadline of submission for new applicants will be on 21st November 2011.

This is the second of its kind after BEDB have successfully granted 8 companies (7 IT related) for the grant scheme. The requirements are pretty reasonable especially that you only need to have a registered company (which one takes a few days to create). The rest of it depends on your concrete business plans and ideas and the final straw will be the presentation to the panels of the evaluation committee on your business plan.

Oh yea, mind you that the business idea that you have must be of something new as the LEAP grant scheme only focuses on “prototype” stage. In other words, the grant only covers the initial stage of the business which does not cover marketing, sales or expansion of business.

Nurul Ain Jaafar, Senior Business Development Manager of Local Business Development at the BEDB, said that the idea of LEAP is to generate more intellectual property, to be a commercial entity, to create spin-offs and to be more innovative.

So what kind of businesses is BEDB looking for? According to Diana Ramli, Project Coordinator of Local Business Development, BEDB, they are seeking for ICT, agriculture and aquaculture and engineering related products.

The grant will be capped at BND 150,000 per applicant so you can submit a business plan and play around with figures (well, of course be realistic). Successful applicants will get 25% of the initial fund or what they call mobilization funds to keep start your business. The rest of the funds will follow a reimbursement system.

So interested applicants, the workshop for LEAP program is on Monday, 31st October at 8:00am at the iCentre. Good luck!!

Diana Ramli, Project Coordinator of Local Business Development, BEDB and Norsuzielawaty Abu Bakar, Assistant Manager, Innovation & New Initiatives Divisoin, BEDB at the press briefing last Wednesday

Keeran Janin (right), founder of MeSixty, who successfully applied the LEAP grant in the first batch and used the funds to create his prototype – MeSixty – which should be launched in November/December.

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Improvements in the government services completed between 2010 and 2011 resulted in a 29 ranks improvement which pushed Brunei Darussalam’s ranking to 83 from 112, according to Doing Business 2012: Doing business in a more transparent world, the ninth in a series of annual reports published by IFC and the World Bank that measures the ease of doing business among 183 economies.

Specifically, this year’s report highlighted significant improvements in 2 indicators, namely Registering Property which improved by 76 ranks to 107th; Trading Across Border at 35th improving by 17 ranks compared to the previous report. Two indicators showed modest improvements, namely Enforcing Contract which improved 8 ranks to 151 and Paying Taxes, improving by 2 ranks to occupy the 20th rank worldwide. The report also published the adjusted 2011ranking for Brunei Darussalam (86) taking into consideration the additional topic (Getting Electricity) and reflecting data corrections.

Brunei Darussalam also ranks well in Getting Electricity (28) a newly re-introduced indicator for 2012 report. However 5 indicators slide from the 2011 rankings namely Starting a Business from 133 to 136; Dealing with Construction Permit sliding 9 ranks from 74 to 83; Protecting Investors down by 2 ranks to 122 and Resolving Insolvency (Closing a Business) also down by 2 ranks to 44th.

As the Chairman of the Ease of Doing Business Steering Committee, Yang Berhormat Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Utama Dato Seri Setia Awang Haji Yahya Bin Begawan Mudim Dato Paduka Haji Bakar, the Minister of Industry and Primary Resources welcomes the overall improvement on Brunei Darussalam’s overall ranking and reiterated that the improvements recognised in the Doing Business 2012: Doing business in a more transparent world report are the results of concerted efforts of all agencies responsible for regulating business environment in Brunei Darussalam. He further stressed that various reforms and improvements are work in progress and the results will only be reflected in future reports.

The Minister of Industry and Primary Resources, Pehin Yahya, spoke of the Ease of Doing Business in Brunei during the Brunei Business Forum 2011 back in September

The formation of Ease of Doing Business Steering Committee and Working Committee earlier this year is testament to the commitment of His Majesty’s government to continuously address business fundamentals in the country. It has enabled and will continuously provide a platform for a more focus and coordinated efforts among government agencies to improve the doing business environment in Brunei Darussalam, and convert reform plans into effective, measurable and practical actions that benefit the business community and the SMEs.

Brunei Darussalam is now 4th among the ASEAN countries behind Singapore which holds the top ranking for the 5th consecutive years, Thailand (17) and Malaysia (18). The Doing Business 2012 report also highlighted that for the period of 2010/2011, 125 countries implemented 245 institutional and regulatory reforms, 13% higher than previously and this seems to be the trend for the future. Therefore at 83rd Brunei Darussalam need to continuously strive to improve its business regulatory environment as guided by the proxy indicators used by the World Bank if it wants to provide a highly conducive environment for local and international businesses to operate in, as well as create competitive and respectable position in the ease of doing business.

Ultimately the real impact of ease of doing business can be best shown through constant growth in businesses and foreign direct investors from international companies who successfully started and thrive in a pro-business environment. Implementation of regulatory and institutional reforms also showed better results and wider impacts with full engagement of the stakeholders, in particular the private sector/ business community. Therefore the Ease of Doing Business Working Committee in collaboration with the World Bank will be conducting a World Bank Workshop on Doing Business in Brunei Darussalam from 15 – 17 November 2011, at the Empire Hotel and Country Club.

The following are the tabled summary of Brunei Darussalam individual indicator rankings attainment compared to 2011 report and position compared to other ASEAN countries. Text courtesy of Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources.

@Mujahidjohar @thewheat and @zulfadly will be organizing an event called ‘Movember BN’. Movember is an event which originated in Adelaide, Australia. The event is a fund raising event for male cancer patients. However, in Brunei, they are not going to raise any funds but they want to create awareness about Men’s health issues in general and highlight cancer as our main issue. For this event, they have the support of the National Cancer Center, NCC.

Currently there is no association that supports Men’s cancer awareness / support group. Even if there is one, it is not active.

What happens during Movember BN? On the eve of 31st October 2011, Monday night 6-9 p.m, they invite interested participants to register with us at the Mall, Gadong. A registration booth will be set up and participants will have to come clean shaved above the lip region, moustache area. Participants also have an option to shave their heads. Photos will be taken as proof of a clean shave at the start of Movember.

A minimal registration fee will be asked upon registration. Money will be used for the end of Movember event which will be held on 5th December, Saturday night. Tentative meet up, Waterfront, BSB, pending approval.

Catch them on Facebook page – http://Facebook.com/movemberbn
or follow them on Twitter @movemberbn