MSME Festival 2019

Written by Rano Iskandar on March 29, 2019. Posted in lifestyle, Business, Social News

Yang Berhormat Dato Seri Setia Dr. Awang Haji Mat Suny bin Haji Mohd Hussein in his welcoming remarks on the first day of MSME Festival 2019

The guest of honour with the panel of speakers for MSME Festival 2019

My first impression – Very, very impressed for once. I have seen many local expos in Brunei and this is maybe the right mix of all sorts kinda expo. I’m quite glad that Darussalam Enterprise (DARe) initiated this exhibition known as MSME Festival 2019 (stands for Micro Small Medium Enterprises). The four day event is taking place at the halls at BRIDEX, Jerudong.

It was a nice touch to see more than 200 vendors participating in the first ever Brunei MSME and this will eventually alleviate the presence of their businesses to the consumer ends apart from their presence on the social media platform.

Most of all, I am quite surprised that there are many uprising local vendors that I don’t know such as @ultimatewallet and @lunalid to name a few. Of course, you won’t be leaving the BRIDEX area hungry as there are many eateries to choose from, the biggest group being the food vendors from the BIBD Seed initiative.

If you are still into white rabbit, the local ice-cream vendors such as Rumah Gelato, Kyna, Project Ice-cream and Happy Cream are selling them. Though I wonder if the phenomenon of the White Rabbit has died down a little. My personal favourite is still from Kyna because I prefer solid types and you should try their blackcurrant flavour. Me loves…

I do hope one day the local vendors can expand their horizons out of Brunei. As for now, Brunei’s non-oil related exports only accounts to 3% which is pretty low. I would say we are heading to a right direction and yes, step-by-step, create a good business portfolio, then expand nationally and sustaining the business before pursuing the overseas market.

Oh yea, MSME Festival also has a good line up of forums, local and international speakers, speaking on the topics of entrepreneurship and growth. There are speakers such as Noor Azian Romlan, Director MATRADE, Sabah Regional Office, Pg Mohd Khairi bin Pg Haji Metussin, CEO, Mindplus Edu, Dr Nur Rahman, CEO, Ghanim International Corporation, Fione Tan, CEO, 28Mall.com, Anderson Lim, CEO & Founder, Nimanja, Azri Jumat, CEO & Founder, Rotuku Group of Companies, Christy Ng, CEO & Co-Founder, Christy Ng Shoes and Keeran Janin, CEO & Founder, Avantist Watches.

I would visit Brunei MSME once again before it ends. See it as a localized Consumer Fair kinda of thing. Parking can be a hassle but I would say it’s worth a visit. Do go in the day time or you might be disappointed when food vendors’ food runs out.

The opening ceremony of MSME Festival 2019 was launched by Yang Berhormat Dato Seri Setia Dr. Awang Haji Mat Suny bin Haji Mohd Hussein.

You can check out MSME Festival 2019 details here.