It has been told

A new travel agent in town

 

Ultramar brings cheers at Children’s Ward at RIPAS

Happening this Friday and Saturday

Synopsis of Jong Sarat: Each struggles between duty and desire: pragmatic Razak, who wants to support his family; dreamy Nur, who is torn between her father’s wishes and her own yearnings; frustrated Asmali, who always feels like second best; and loyal Salmah, who wants only to nurture the friendships around her as carefully as she nurtures her parents’ Jong Sarat business.

One more until their second original production ‘Jong Sarat’! Get your tickets *TODAY* for either of these production nights:

Friday, 22nd January 2016, 7pm
Saturday, 23rd January 2016, 7pm

Tickets are available at SM Yayasan SHHB Primary School Hall this week from 4pm – 9.30pm. You’ll also be able to grab them at The Library Cafe @thelibrarycafebwn and Caffé Verve @ Alliance Francaise de Brunei @vervespresso. You can view more on their info at their website

Check the map for our venue and ticket collection point! Kindly contact for more information (via message only).

Telegram:telegram.me/seedsjongsarat
Whatsapp: +6738678673 for tickets updates.

Some of the cast of Jong Sarat. Image by Ikhwan Salleh of The Brunei Times.

One of the many characters in Jong Sarat, the second original production by Seeds Brunei, during a rehearsal held recently. Image by Ikhwan Salleh of The Brunei Times.

 

Yang Berhormat Pehin Orang Kaya Laila Setia Dato Seri Setia Haji Abdul Rahman bin Haji Ibrahim highlighted and acknowledged that the country needs to stimulate economic growth through SMEs as the current oil prices have impacted the Brunei revenue stream during the launch of the Enterprise Open Day for Small and Medium Enterprises at Design and Technology Building located in the Anggerek Desa Technology Park

The Energy and Industry Department at the Prime Minister’s Office (“EIDPMO”) organised an Enterprise Open Day for Small and Medium Enterprises (“SMEs”). Today (Thursday) will be the final day for the event.

The Enterprise Open Day event is aimed at increasing awareness of the various enterprise support services available as well as identifying issues faced by existing and upcoming by entrepreneurs in Brunei Darussalam.

 Held at the Design and Technology Building located in the Anggerek Desa Technology Park, the event opened on Tuesday, 19 January 2015 and will continue on Wednesday and Thursday from 8am to 5pm. The Enterprise Open Day is based around the theme, “Leading Economic Growth and Contributing to GDP for Brunei Darussalam” and was officiated by the Guest of Honour, Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office and Second Minister of Finance at the Prime Minister’s Office, Yang Berhormat Pehin Orang Kaya Laila Setia Dato Seri Setia Haji Abdul Rahman bin Haji Ibrahim.

Also in attendance were Yang Berhormat Pehin Datu Singamanteri Kolonel (B) Dato Seri Setia (Dr.) Awang Haji Mohammad Yasmin bin Haji Umar, Minister of Energy and Industry at the Prime Minister’s Office, Yang Mulia Dato Paduka Awang Haji Hamdan bin Haji Abu Bakar, Deputy Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office, Yang Mulia Dato Paduka Awang Haji Mohd Roselan bin Haji Mohd Daud, Deputy Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office, Yang Mulia Dato Paduka Awang Haji Hisham bin Haji Mohd Hanifah, Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Finance, Yang Mulia Dato Paduka Dr. Awang Haji Mohd Amin Liew bin Abdullah, Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Finance, Permanent Secretaries, Deputy Permanent Secretaries from the Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, as well as directors of all the participating agencies.

After a brief opening ceremony, Pehin Orang Kaya Laila Setia Dato Seri Setia Haji Abdul Rahman took a tour of the booths set up by both government agencies and financial institutions as well as the ‘Enterprise Issues’ log in desk and Business Advisory Clinics.

Businesses planning to utilise any of these services, should bring their form 16 and 17 and company chop.

Also in conjunction with The Enterprise Open Day, is the launch of the business.gov.bn website and the Central Payment System (“CPS”). The business.gov.bn is a portal providing a single source of information of business-related government services across various Ministries and agencies. The CPS is a payment module under the E-Government Platform enabling customers to pay via online for Government e-services.

One biz will be the first e-service to use CPS with the long term goal of expanding this payment service to other Government e-services. The ‘Enterprise Issues’ log in desk is made available to collect information on any issues or challenges met by local SMEs in Brunei Darussalam.

There will also be presentations by Wawasan Secretariat, Monetary Authority of Brunei Darussalam (“AMBD”) and Brunei Intellectual Property (“BruIPO”) conducted on Wednesday and Thursday to provide insights and information for those attending Enterprise Open Day. Business advisory clinics will also be made available by various agencies including EIDPMO, various banks, BruIPO and LiveWire. Enterprise Open Day saw the participation of agencies both from government and financial institutions setting up support service and information counters to assist enterprises to better understand the assistance provided by the sultanate.

These include Wawasan 2035 Secretariat, Ease of Doing Business, FDI Centre, Registry of Companies and Business Names from Ministry of Finance, Revenue Division from Ministry of Finance, BruIPO, E-Government National Centre (“EGNC”), Labour Department, Royal Customs and Excise Department, Tabung Amanah Pekerja (“TAP”), AMBD, BAG Networks Sdn Bhd, Authority for Building Control & Construction Industry (“ABCi”) and banks.

 

Borneo Insider’s Guide (BiG) is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year with The BiG 10th Anniversary Picnic Festival at the Jerudong Park Colonnade this Sunday, 24th January 2016, from 2pm – 10pm. There will be open-air picnic spots; 8 live music performances by Maria ‘Eia’ Grace Koh, Kala K, with support from DIG Records Preservation Blues Jazz Hall Band and friends; lucky draws, an adult colouring competition and a photo competition with prizes to be won, great food and creative crafts on sale by 50 local and regional vendors. The BiG anniversary event is not just a celebration of BiG magazine’s 10th year in print, but it is also to raise money for two local charities: Majlis Kesejahteraan Masyarakat (MKM) and Care and Actions for Strays (CAS).

 

It’s always fun traveling in groups because it gives a different sense of fun and bonding. This time, 20 from Brunei Toastmasters (BSC, UBD, BASC and Otters) traveled to Kota Kinabalu for a joint meeting with KK toastmasters, its first ever to be conducted. The toastmasters meeting followed the Brunei agenda and format to share experience with the KK toastmasters on how it is being conducted in Brunei.

I noticed some differences from Brunei and KK in terms of the agenda. Firstly, the table topic speeches take place in the first half of the meeting. Brunei toastmasters had this practice for many years until they change the format a few years ago and it has been very effective for speech evaluators and time management.

Secondly, the KK toastmasters have an invocator to kick off the meeting, toasting to Yang Di Pertain Agong and Yang Di Pertua Negeri Sabah and lastly to Toastmasters International. Interesting. We don’t practice that in Brunei.

Lastly, just a few things such as a Humour Master for KK side for a max of 5 minutes to entertain the audience and the different role of the Table Topics Evaluator where he or she focuses more on the Table Topics Master then briefly on the Table Topics speakers.

On Sunday, we had a leadership training on how to improve the clubs and also to retrain the executive committees (Exco) of the various toastmasters club from KK and Brunei. This training is normally carried out at least twice a year in hoping the Excos that attended can share their knowledge to their respective clubs.

Overall, a fruitful weekend I had and a big thank you to my KK friends, Phylicia, Laurence and Jerry, for bring me around last weekend. I’m also glad that Brunei Speakers’ Club has two new members now – Satra and Alfa. Our club is definitely growing but let’s not forget the older members who have played an important role in sustaining the club.

 

Netcom associates with a Hua Ho staff (in red) at the new Netcom IT department located at Hua Ho Manggis

Razer products at discounted price until 8th February

In a partnership to better serve their customers, Netcom have opened their 2nd IT Department collaboration with Hua Ho Department Store. Situated at Hua Ho Manggis, the new IT Department is a strategic location to serve the residents of Jalan Muara.

This collaboration is an extension of the business partnership between Hua Ho and Netcom, with the success of the IT Department in the Hua Ho Yayasan Branch.

The Hua Ho Manggis IT Department is open daily from 10am – 10pm and is located on the 2nd Floor. It features a full range of Razer and Dell products, as well as gaming gear such as Kingston, HyperX, Logitech and Prolink. Other available products include networking solutions, pen drives, cartridges and also a full range of consumer printers from Canon.

Mr. Vincent Goh, Managing Director of Netcom, said ” We deeply appreciate the trust and the strong support from our business partner, Hua Ho. We are thankful to Netcom customers for supporting us all these years, and we are committed to providing excellent services, quality products and competitive prices to the public.”

To celebrate the opening, Netcom is offering slashed prices for Razer and other selected products until February 8th. For every purchase of $100 and over in a single receipt, customers will receive an exclusive Dell umbrella.