Representatives from Concepts Computer and from Kingston Beverage & Creamery during the MoU for the Ramadan promotion

Concepts Computer, one of the largest IT retailer in Brunei, along with Kingston Beverage & Creamery Sdn. Bhd., one of the oldest canned-beverage distributor in Brunei, is signing a collaborative MOU for promoting their respective products during the holy month of Ramadhan and the festive month of Syawal.

Signing on behalf of Kingston is Mr. Ng Boon Wee, Sales and Marketing Manager, with Ms. Aelene Siang, Business Development Manager for Kingston Beverage & Creamery; and while on behalf of Concepts Computer, Mr. Zul Abdul Rahman, Marketing Executive, and Ms. Azalinah Tuah, Senior Retail Executive for Concepts Computer.

Zul Abdul Rahman, Marketing Executive for Concepts Computer, speaking to the media, said, “Concepts Computer has a large customer base in the Bruneian Muslim community, so it is as always the perfect decision for us to collaborate with Kingston Beverage & Creamery Sdn. Bhd. to provide FREE drink coupon, and also the FREE drink coupon is a thank you to our loyal Muslim customer base who have always supported Concepts through multiple Ramadhans.” He also added to the media, “Concepts Computer and Kingston Beverage & Creamery have been in partnership for the Ramadhan and Aidilfitri season for half a decade now, and we would like to see that relation hold and grow for another half a decade.”

You can redeem a carton of Pepsi Max when you purchase over $200 in a single receipt during the month of Ramadhan at Concepts Computer

Mr. Zul Abdul Rahman, Marketing Executive of Concepts Computer, Ms. Azalinah Tuah, Senior Retail Executive for Concepts Computer, Ms. Aelene Siang, Business Development Manager, Kingston Beverage & Creamery and Mr. Ng Boon Wee, Sales and Marketing Manager, Kingston Beverage & Creamery

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For every purchase over $200 in a single receipt during the month of Ramadhan and Syawal, a FREE drink coupon will be provided, redeemable for a carton (24 cans) of canned-beverage. Redemption of each FREE drink coupon will be done at Kingston Beverage & Creamery redemption centre in Beribi.

Please note, Kingston’s redemption centre will start operating from May 20th til June 16th 2019, from 8.00am til 5.00pm, Mondays to Fridays. But to compensate for the Hari Raya rush, the redemption centre will also be open for half a day on Saturdays, from 8.00am til 12.00pm. For more info regarding Kingston Beverage & Creamery’s redemptions hours and other products, please visit @KingstonKBC on Instagram.

And to further celebrate the arrival of Ramadhan, Concepts will be doing a Ramadhan Extravaganza, providing multiple Acer laptop models at different specifications and are PRICED TO PLEASE YOU, from i3 powered laptops all the way to i7 gaming laptops. DON’T MISS IT !

Also still available for the public to experience during Ramadhan is the FREE Gaming Experience Centre as provided by Concepts Computer at their Kiulap showroom for FREE without any obligations to purchase. Members of the public who are curious to experience what the current e-Sport scene is all about, can come down and play games individually or as a group for FREE !

As a side-note, the opening hours for Concepts Computer will remain from 9.00am to 6.30pm, Monday to Saturday. For more information regarding the FREE drink coupons or any other products or services on offer from Concepts Computer, call 2233551/2233552/2233553, or visit your nearest Concepts Computer showroom.

Prize presentation for DSTIncomm “Buy and Win” promotion in conjunction with the Samsung Galaxy S10 launch back in March.

Sadly, I wasn’t one of the winners of the Samsung Galaxy S10 after purchasing a Samsung Galaxy S10e two months ago from DSTIncomm. However, there were two lucky winners were rewarded with the Samsung Galaxy S10 as part of the S10 “buy and win” promotion which ran from 8th March until 30th April 2019.

The prize presentation ceremony took place on Friday 3rd May 2019 at DSTIncomm’s Samsung Experience Store in Abdul Razak, Gadong.

Customers who purchased any series of the Samsung Galaxy S10 at DSTIncomm stores nationwide stood a chance of winning a Samsung Galaxy S10.

Hjh Latifah binti Ambran went home with a Samsung Galaxy S10e while Liew Ting Shong was rewarded with a Samsung Galaxy S10. Presenting the prizes for the winners was Pang Tiong Kiat, Product and Marketing Manager of DSTIncomm.

The Samsung Galaxy S10 series is currently available at DSTIncomm stores nationwide both for box sale and on DST’s 4G phone plan. For more information on DSTIncomm products, customers can visit dstincomm.com

Liew Ting Shong won the Samsung Galaxy S10

Hjh Latifah binti Ambran won the Samsung Galaxy S10e

The finalists being briefed before the draw

Wu Chun posing with his kids after donating blood last weekend at Fitness Zone

It’s blood donation time and Fitness Zone has joined the bandwagon in the blood donation drive. It was their second blood drive in collaboration with Jerudong Park Medical Centre.

Also donating last weekend was Fitness Zone’s Managing Director and owner, Wu Chun. The blood donation drive was also part of the 6-month body transformation program known as the “New Me” challenge which has attracted more than 600 fitness enthusiasts.

Around 200 donated last weekend ranging from members, staff, the public and, of course, the challengers of the “New Me Transformation.” More than 200 bags were collected in the process.

Wu Chun said, “It’s truee that every or any extended hand towards charity makes a difference. One donor can save three lives and by this, we are truly grateful for all the heroes that joined us and in the past to be part of our initiatives to create changes and positive awareness through our communities.”

“I always tell my staff that you don’t have to be a manager or in a higher position or even a celebrity. While these can place an advantage, I told them to lead by example, little by little, as you inspire the world with this noble act.”

“Fitness Zone is not only here to train you to be fit but also change your body and lifestyle for the better. We aimed to make an impact by starting to train and having a good mindset to overcome any challenges. Our minds are powerful and courageous.”

For further information regarding registration for the upcoming events/membership enquiries, do contact Kiulap branch 223 2338 or Serusop branch 244 8488 or visit their Facebook or instagram page @fitnesszonebrunei. The health club is now opening doors for free consultation, health assessments by appointment.

Jovian Mandagie with partners of the Boxing event next week

Continuing the success of 2 consecutive years of the annual ‘Raya’ sales event, JBoxing is returning to Brunei for its third year with brand new image, bigger venue, greater deals and more options from Jovian Ready-To-Wear for people to choose from.

Taking place at the Mercedes-Benz Autohaus from 26th to 28th of April 2019, 10 AM to 10 PM, the event is presented by the Bruneian powerhouse atelier and multi-label store, Bajoo Butik who remains as the Title Partner for the event and with an exclusive partnership with Jati Transport Sdn Bhd that is set to give a new reach, exposure and higher milestone.

“We have been so blessed with the overwhelming response we had received from our dearest Jovianistas in Brunei every year that without a fail, it’s the most exciting thing for us to keep coming back here. And this year, we thought we wanted to offer something bigger than what we’ve done before. New partners, new space and (of course) new collections!” –Dato’ Jovian Mandagie, Chief Executive Officer of Jovian Apparel Sdn Bhd and Creative Director of Jovian Ready-To-Wear.

Jackie Lim, founder of Bajoo Batik, with Jovian Mandagie

The crowd last night at Mercedes-Benz Autohaus

Jovian speaking to the audience

To fill a much bigger space at the Mercedes-Benz Autohaus’ flagship showroom, the event will carry a range of new collections from ‘Secret Garden’, ‘Jovian x Ria Miranda’, ‘Jovian Men’, ‘Jovian x OhMostWanted’, ‘Retro Raya’ and ‘Lace Edition” from Jovian Basic Raya. Not to mention, there will Jovian Hijab Exclusive to be launched exclusively during J Boxing Brunei only.

Joining in as the official Event Partner for J Boxing, Maszalina Event Management Services is the brainwork behind this year’s event setup to ensure the best shopping experience. With over 16 years in the field, Maszalina Event Management Services has handled massive production from corporate events, wedding, sales event, annual dinner, expo, and many more.

Apart from that, J Boxing is also supported by its other main corporate partners such as Mix Media Worx as the Official Digital Media Partner, Nyonya as the Official Catering Partner and CItyneon as the Official Media Display Partner.

For this three-day event, Jovian Ready-To-Wear will give away 15 special items to 5 lucky shoppers each day, not to mention special deals and promotions that will be happening during the period of ‘Happy Hour’ that should not be missed. Prices start from as low as BND10 and discounts up to 50% on selected items.

Jovian mingling with the management of Jati Transport Sdn Bhd

Dinner at Autohaus last night

Datin Paduka Dr Hajah Norlila binti Dato Paduka Haji Abdul Jalil, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Culture launching the BIBD’s 14th Home Showcase Festival

It’s the 14th edition of the BIBD’s 14th “Home Showcase Festival” and this has become a household name in Brunei Darussalam. I remember attending almost all their home showcase events but to date, this is the biggest because it’s held for three days (12th to 14th April).

Buying a home has slowly become a culture among Bruneians and BIBD wants to ensure that home buyers’ dreams can become a reality by facilitating their needs with every step of the way.

According to Hajah Nurul Akmar binti Haji Md Jaafar, BIBD Head of Retail Banking, the Home Showcase will benefit the home owners and also providing a one-stop platform for current and prospective homeowners especially the young professionals.

Officiating the ceremony last Friday was Datin Paduka Dr Hajah Norlila binti Dato Paduka Haji Abdul Jalil, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Culture, who spent quite some time visiting all the vendors that participated in the Home Showcase Festival.

Of course, let’s not forget BIBD’s QuickPay function where it’s cashless payments where you don’t need to fork out your physical money. I have been actively using it and I find it very, very convenient. The adoption rate was pretty good during Brunei’s MSME where the usage of QuickPay doubled, showing signs that people are ready to go cashless.

Customers can also get a BIBD NEXGEN Foldable Shopping Bag as long as stocks last with a minimum spending of BND10. The event also served as an avenue for local entrepreneurs and small and medium and enterprises (SMEs) as well as partnering realtors and interior designers to showcase their products and services.

BIBD Seeds, a special program for “Special Mothers Empowerment Entrepreneurship Development” Programme, aimed to transform underprivileged mothers into successful and resilient entrepreneurs, and some of the BIBD Seeds participants were present to sell their food and beverage business. Some of them will be graduating by end of April 2019 under the BIBD Seeds programme and soon, the second batch of entrants will partake in this successful program.

BIBD Home Showcase ends this Sunday. So do drop by BIBD Kiulap later and check out your home needs and also the local vendors participating in the event.

Guest of honour visiting the realtors

@kapintar.bn

Some of BIBD’s Seeds

Ken View pavilion

Awesome range of home deco and interior design by Ken View

@bloomproject.co

Partners Edy Zurina and Aleeya Jane with VIPs during the official launch of As Salwaa Beauty Spa

Edy Zurina was very grateful to her mother, her partners and her team in making this a success

As Salwaa Beauty Spa, is a local Beauty establishment specialising in an all Natural & Organic Treatments for women.

A grand opening event was held at the Yayasan Complex Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah in Bandar Seri Begawan last Sunday

The event was officiated by its founder and General Manager, Ms Edy Zurina Awang. It was also held to appreciate their customers support for As Salwaa Beauty since it online selling days in 2014 to the opening of the original store in 2017 until its relocation in Yayasan Complex which has an enhanced ambience that aims to provide that hint of Luxury and comfort to its customers.

It was made even special with the launch of a Luxurious Oud Based Skincare product, Oud Essentials by Fragrance Du Bois (FDB), born in Nature crafted in France. FDB were represented by Head of Operations Asia, Puan Anita Raphay based in Kuala Lumpur. All VIP guests were delightfully surprised with each getting 1 product from the Luxurious skincare line.

This Luxury brand is currently only available in exclusive stores Internationally such as London Mayfair, Selfridges, Robinsons and Starhill Gallery Kuala Lumpur. As Salwaa Beauty is honoured to be appointed as the Exclusive Distributor for this Luxurious Brand in Brunei.

With its tagline “Your Beauty, Truly Naturally”, As Salwaa Beauty is a true believer in the benefits of Natural Products and avoids products that contains harmful synthetic chemicals in its ingredients.

Visit their Instagram @assalwaa.beauty.spa to find out more or their soon to be launched website www.assalwaabeauty.com

Puan Anita Raphay, Head of Operations Asia, Fragrance Du Bois (FDB) gave a short speech before the launch

Check out the spa

Relaxing room area

One of the treatment rooms

Dual treatment room

Congratulations to both of you 😀

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.

Do visit Sparks Park at Hall 2, BRIDEX

At Cendana Booth

Madison

Check out @lunanid pins 😀

One of the speakers at MSME Festival 2019

Many food vendors

Another forum on the first day in the afternoon

I bought myself a pin from Lunanid

Check out BIBD Seed food vendors

Interesting wallet concept from @ultimatewallet

Oh yea, I have been paying my things at MSME Festival using Progresif Pay

Seng Yee craving’s for Alin’s Legacy

Minister of Primary Resources and Tourism Dato Seri Setia Awang Hj Ali bin Hj Apong addressed a key note speech during the launch of the Culinary School at Laksamana College of Business recently

I liked what the Minister of Primary Resources and Tourism Dato Seri Setia Awang Hj Ali bin Hj Apong said during his remarks on the launch of the Culinary School at Laksamana College of Business. He said that Brunei need more chefs rather than cooks because chefs can create impact both locally and internationally. I would totally agree on that as being a chef is an entirely different ball game.

I was honoured to witness the official launch of the new Culinary School at Laksamana College of Business and the set up itself was pretty up to standard I must admit. The culinary school has a proper kitchen (see thru concept), preparation area, study area and of course, the dining area to serve the customers.

I could see that LCB has put their sweat and efforts in making the culinary school possible and finally it was officially launched. Being the syllabus coming from City & Guilds, do expect a reputable learning experience for the culinary students guided and facilitated by highly qualified chefs.

I also could see the passion and dedication from the front line (waiters and waitresses), the preparation crew team and the cooking team. They just started the course a few weeks ago and the launch event was their biggest task to date where they served a three course meal to the invited guests at the dining area of the Culinary School.

I was quite pleased to see such establishment and course made available in Brunei and furthermore, with the guidance of the reputable chefs, the students will be able upgrade themselves in the world of culinary.

The Culinary School, one of the first private culinary schools set up in Brunei Darussalam, offers students two City & Guilds culinary programmes: the Level 1 Certificate in Food Preparation and Cooking and Level 2 Diploma in Food Preparation and Cooking.

The Level 1 Certificate covers all the main elements of food preparation, while the Level 2 Diploma builds on the Level 1 Certificate course.

For more details, you can visit Laksamana College of Business website.

Officiating the launch of the Culinary School by the Minister

The Minister touring the dry kitchen area

The Minister viewing the kitchen area where the food were being cooked and prepared

The dining area

One of the students from the Culinary School preparing the entree for the guests

Another student busy preparing the entree

I love this dish the most. Good texture too.

The finishing touch for the sago

Audi the overall winner in “Best Brands in All Classes”

Audi is the big winner in the Auto Bild “Best Brands in All Classes” reader survey. The four rings won seven individual victories in the quality assessment – and easily took the overall win. Audi also placed first in the design and price/performance categories as well as in the “Reliable Cars” image field. No brand performed better in the core criteria of the image survey, in which over 70,000 readers participated.

Bild readers found that Audi does the best job in terms of quality, design and price/performance. Readers voted the four rings overall brand winner with 55.2 percent approval – ahead of Porsche and Skoda.

No other manufacturer enjoys more trust than Audi when it comes to quality. “We want to consistently delight customers with top quality in the premium segment,” says Michael Neumayer, Head of Audi Quality Assurance. “Auto Bild readers have emphatically confirmed that we have once again succeeded here.”

In the “Best Brands in All Classes” survey, readers of Auto Bild trade magazine rated 38 car brands in 14 vehicle categories. Quality, design and price/performance ratio are considered the core criteria here.

Audi topped the quality ranking in seven categories: compact, midsize, full-size and convertibles up to EUR 50,000, as well as all SUV categories – small, medium and large. The brand chalked up additional individual wins in design in the full-size category and in the price/performance category for convertibles over EUR 50,000. In addition, the “Reliable Cars” category went to the four rings across all classes. The brand thus achieved a total of ten first place finishes – an achievement that continued Audi’s strong finish in the “Best Brands” of 2018.