The Authority for Info-communications Technology Industry of Brunei Darussalam (AITI) in collaboration with the iCentre of Brunei Economic Development Board (BEDB), Tech One Global and Google Developers Group (GDG) Women Brunei Darussalam, today held the nation’s inaugural Girls in ICT Day celebration with an official opening of a series of events organised for the girls and young women in Brunei.

The guest of honour to officiate the event was Yang Mulia Datin Paduka Hajah Adina binti Othman, Deputy Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports. The event took place at the KHUB building in Kg. Anggerek Desa. Also present at the event were deputy permanent secretaries, AITI Members of Authority, senior officials from BEDB and government institutions, and representatives from the ICT industry.

In his opening speech, the Chief Executive of AITI, Awang Hj Yahkup bin Hj Menudin mentioned “ICT provides new digital opportunities to end discrimination, promote gender equality and to empower the girls and women.” Hj Yahkup also highlighted that “within the local ICT industry, our latest record reveals that only 36% of the total workforce in ICT companies are made up of women.

Majority of these women hold administrative and management positions, very few are technicians, IT engineers and system programmers, and only a minimal number of female owns ICT businesses or holds a leadership portfolio within the business organization. Women are undeniably underrepresented in the ICT professional sector as a whole.” He then emphasized that building the awareness and skills, as well as providing clear ICT career paths and opportunities for the girls and women have to take place. Programs have to be designed to encourage the interest and participation of girls and young women to pursue ICT studies and ultimately a career in ICT related field.

Guest of honour Datin Paduka Hjh Adina, Deputy Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, encouraged more women to be involved in ICT to follow the role models of female technopreneurs such as Hjh Salma, Shavon and Sophia

Hj Yahkup, Chief Executive of AITI, highlighted that 36% of the total workforce in ICT companies are made up of women

Group photo with the guest honour and the organisers of the Girls in ICT Day

The officiating event today also saw the guest of honour taking a tour to the two parallel workshops, namely Vid-IT and Tech-IT, where Yang Mulia Datin Paduka Hajah Adina had a closer look on the various ICT activities held for the girls and young women. The Vid-IT workshop has seen active participation by Year 10 female students in making a simple animation video using Adobe Flash. The workshop, facilitated by Dyg Khairunnisaa Saaniah binti Dr. Haji Kamsani from Tech One Global, also include students’ presentations to compete for the most creative videos.

Meanwhile, the Tech-IT workshop, a talk-a-thon session was held for the female students from the higher learning institutions. The workshop facilitated by Dr. Mona Kassim from the iCentre has gathered the audience to discuss on various ICT-related topics presented by aspiring women and entrepreneurs in this field.

Some of the young ladies entrepeneur sharing their ideas and experiences

The Girls in ICT Day activities will continue with another workshop to be held at AITI tomorrow (1 May 2013), called Pitch-IT. It is a pitching session for lower sixth female students that is aimed to encourage participants to generate innovative ideas on mobile apps as well as pitching of ideas towards commercially viable products. Another on-going activity to mark the Girls in ICT Day is the one-minute video clip competition, known as Clip-IT, organised by AITI. This competition aims to promote the use of ICT medium and encourage participations from girls aged 13 to 19 years, to produce a short video clip with the theme “IT’s a Girls’ World”. Entries to Clip-IT are opened from 25 April to 17 May 2013, and members of the public are invited to vote for their favourite clips starting from 18 to 22 May 2013 through AITI’s website.

By the end of these events, it is hoped that the participants would be inspired and be more attracted to the fields of ICT, and be aspired towards a career path in ICT-related professions. AITI and its supporting partners once again highlighted that this event is not intended to discriminate the males; but rather to promote and increase the involvement and interest of the females in ICT with the support of its male counterparts.

Girls in ICT Day is an initiative backed by International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to create a global environment that empowers and encourages girls and young women to consider careers in the growing field of ICT. Celebrated worldwide on the fourth Thursday of April annually, this year’s Girls in ICT Day was observed on 25th April 2013.

AITI is also pleased to invite the general public to share any other initiatives or activities to commemorate this event or those simply promoting ICT-related activities towards improving the girls’ and women’s involvement in this field by tweeting the global hash-tag #girlsinICT or emailing it to Ms. Farihah Said at farihah.said@aiti.gov.bn. Any participants’ images and photographs supporting this celebration are also encouraged to be uploaded onto Instagram and tagged using #girlsinict2013, #itsagirlsworld, and #clipit2013.

For more information about the Girls in ICT events, please visit AITI website at www.aiti.gov.bn/girlsinICT

 

Iron Man 3 Beach Mat. Get it now with KFC Family Feast or just for $5 with any chicken purchase. While stocks last!!

This one you should really try – Penang Mamak Soup

For those who have never been to Penang, the Malaysia state is widely famous to be the Food Paradise of Malaysia. Cheap and tasty Hawker food can be literally found everywhere. From Nasi Kandar, Delicious Laksa’s to Yummy Nasi Lemak, Roti Prata to Char Kway teow, the range is very diverse.

Penang Food is Malaysia’s center of good food and it comes to no surprise as it is very unique in Malaysia because of their diverse culture. Where Penang is a liveable urban municipality, with a setting of mixed culture, of Chinese or various origins, Malays, Indians, Mamaks, Eurasians and some Thais.

So come and join them at the Goldiana Café & Lounge and their promotion is until 11th May 2013 as they will prepare you a feast and let you try and enjoy the mixture of tastes and senses. The Penang Food promotion is priced at BND 25 nett for adult and BND 14.20 nett for children below 12 years old.

And also it will gives you the chance to win a 3 Days 2 Nights Holiday Package to Penang inclusive of return air ticket BWN-KUL-PEN-KUL-BWN, an accommodation in Penang and return hotel airport transfer for 1 person.

Throughout the entire period of Penang food promotion, diners at the Orchid Garden Hotel will be entitled to a Lucky draw voucher. Each Lucky draw voucher will entitle the guest to be eligible for the Lucky Draw and at the end of the promotion, a chance to be selected as the winner of the Orchid Garden Hotel Grand Prize.

Some of the tasty selections at Penang Food promotion

There are a few stalls here at the food promotion

Penang Famous Char Kway Teow

Penang Lok-Lok stall

Are you a fan of Lok-Lok?

Sambal petai… yummm!!!

Many stalls and choices at OGH Penang Food Promotion 2013

 

The marching band to officiate the opening

This is the third year running that the Sukan Ria Antara Syarikat is launched. It’s also known as Inter-Company Sports Fest. The main objective of this fest is to provide a perfect opportunity for employers and employees to take time off to foster a closer relationship through participation in sports and activities.

So what sports they are being included in this year’s event? Well, there’s basketball, badminton, futsal, bowling, hiking (12th May) and Tug-of-War (17th May). The organisers of this year’s event are Labour Department from Ministry of Home Affairs and Event Manager Sunlit Advertising.

The first activity that began last Saturday at the Chung Hwa Middle School Darussalam Hall where the NBT Basketball Tournament took place. Individual activities will each be officiated at different places on different day as per the following:

• Inter-Company Fun Hike & Hiking Challenge – 12 May at Tasek Lama Recreational Park, Bandar Seri Begawan.
• Inter-Company Badminton Tournament – 10 May at Multipurpose Hall, Fire & Rescue Dept.
• Inter-Company Futsal Tournament – 12 May at National Indoor Stadium, Berakas.
• Inter-Company Tug-of-War Tournament – 17 May at Taman SOAS.
• Inter-Company Bowling Tournament – 19 May at MegaStrike Bowl Centre, The Airport Mall.

The final activity to wrap up the whole event will be the final games for the Inter-Company Tug-of-War Tournament which will happen on 26 May, Sunday at Taman Hj Sir Muda Omar ‘Ali Saifuddien (SOAS). The program for the day included prize presentation for all the winning teams as well as certificate presentation to the co-organisers and other supporters who have contributed to the success of the event.

Jackson Ting, Managing Director of Sunlit Advertising, expressed his gratitude and thanks to the private companies for their continuous support

Ramlee Haji Jamudin, co-organiser of Sukan Ria Antara Syarikat 2013, from the Labour Department

Kevin Tay was the hero for HSBC as they beat Termicam in Group B of the Inter-Company NBT Basketball Tournament. He scored 35 points in a 72-66 victory. His teammates Lesly Kuan scored 9 points while Lim Boon Teck scored 7 points.

Termicam had four players in double digits – Wilson Rabano 16 points, Babester Napagao 15 points, Franklin Buladaio 15 points and Condrado Rotance 12 points.

It was a pretty close match but the 11-0 run by HSBC made the difference after a masterful performance by Tay. In the other matches, Premier Motor beat Goldmyne 110-98, Sunlit A beat DST 63-59, SCB beat Jati Transport 93-90. Last Monday, Premier Motor beat Boustead 82-57 while QAF beat Termicam 112-80.

Players’ oath for the spirit of the sports

Mr. Lau of Aifa and Mr. Pao of Concepts Computer

A great crowd during the opening of the event

Guest of honour, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs graced the event

A free throw for HSBC. They won the match 72-66 against Termicam

Kevin Tay scored 35 points for HSBC

Boon Teck representing HSBC

The official shirt for this year’s event

Good luck in badminton, HC 😀