The Minister of Energy (c)witnessing the agreement between the scholars and Yves Grosjean, TOTAL E&P Borneo B V’s General Manager. Photo courtesy of Al-Haadi.

TOTAL E&P Borneo B V will soon be sending its first batch of Bruneian Scholars to France this year under the company’s education scholarship scheme, following the signing of agreement between the scholars and the firm last Tuesday.

Yesterday’s signing ceremony, which was witnessed by the Minister of Energy at the Yang Berhormat Pehin Datu Singamanteri Colonel (Rtd) Dato Seri Setia (Dr) Hj Mohd Yasmin Hj Umar, Energy Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office, will see the Sultanate’s scholars to undertake their higher education for the French energy giant.

In his welcoming remarks, Total General Manager Yves Grosjean yesterday said that the Total Education Scholarship Scheme is a result of the cooperation between Total E&P Deep Offshore Borneo B V together with partners to the Commercial Area Joint Venture and the Energy Department of the Prime Minister’s Office, along with the support by PetroleumBRUNEI.

Under this scholarship programme, he said, the students will be given the opportunity to undergo their undergraduate studies at top universities in France, continue their postgraduate studies, and eventually offered an international working experience.

“The six-year programme will include a one-year intensive French language course, followed by a five-year undergraduate degree and post-graduate programme in a country well known for its excellence in engineering education,” he said.

He also said that the scholarship will allow successful candidates to gain international work experience in some of Total’s global offices or any other organisation related in their field.

Yves Grosjean spoke on his welcoming remarks. Photo courtesy of Al-Haadi.

Heather Lim received her award. Image courtesy of fmBrunei

Mohd Abd Malik Mahyuddin received his award. Image courtesy of fmBrunei

All the five TOTAL scholars. Congratulations!! Image courtesy of fmBrunei

Group photo with the guest of honour, TOTAL and the scholars. Photo courtesy of Al-Haadi

Total introduced its first scholarship scheme for Bruneians earlier this year, where five candidates were successfully chosen out of a pool of about 30 applicants by a panel comprising various organisations and agencies, including the Energy Department at the Prime Minister’s Office.

The candidates are Mohd Abd Malik Mahyuddin, Mohd Aizat Hj Hamidun, Chantelle Phung, Heather Lim and Chua Yi Sern all of who are aged 19.

Grosjean said that granting the scholarships to Bruneians also enhances the ties between Brunei and France, and between Total and Brunei.

Speaking with journalists following the signing, YB Pehin Dato Hj Mohd Yasmin lauded Total’s initiative towards human capital development and also providing career opportunities for local talents.

Sharing how the scholarship came about, the Minister explained during an official dinner in France, when the President of Total Asia Pacific Jean Marie Guillermou had a conversation with MINDEF (Ministry of Defence) scholars studying in a top French university, that Guillermou was impressed with the scholars fluency in French.

“Guillermou then approached me and asked if we could bring produce more Brunei scholars in France, and that Total will be providing scholarships to give opportunities to young Bruneians. Since then we have been discussing about the scholarship with Total,” he said. “So we can see that there are a lot of young talented Bruneians that can do well internationally. We have proved it with the MINDEF scholars, and there’s no reason why we cannot prove it with new scholars under Total which we have just signed an agreement with.” Text courtesy of Al-Haadi Abu Bakar of The Brunei Times

This was taken a few months back when TOTAL announced the scholarship scheme

The open day was held at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf few months back

Muhd Aizat attended the Open Day and now he’s a scholar

You should try this out

The photo shoot session took place at Jen Studio

Brunei’s leading online food directory for Ramadhan, LoveFoodHateWaste (LFHW), is back again!! Today, the team has grown bigger by involving a few key players to make LFHW more exciting than before.

When LFHW (http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.org) was introduced in Ramadhan three years ago, the response was overwhelming and to date, the website has generated 1/4 of million hits. Co-founders of LFHW, Pg Syahreen Metassan and I, believe that there will at least a 10-15% increase in readership from last year.

LFHW also have other team members to assist during Ramdhan – Angel Choo Tze Hui, another food enthusiast and another popular blogger, Reeda Malik of Anakbrunei.org. br />
The idea of the food directory is to make browsing easy for the public with regard to the available choices of delicacies offered by restaurants and cafes throughout the country which is updated regularly. Readers can also post constructive comments to further improve the food service and quality of the respective restaurants and cafes.

LFHW will be issuing two editions of LFHW’s newsletter. The first edition will be released by the 1st week of Ramadhan while the 2nd issue will be released on 3rd of week of Ramadhan. This is the first time that a newsletter edition is being introduced and this is to cater to those who prefer hard copies for reference. In the newsletter, there will be advertorials and advertisements of some restaurants and cafes as well as listings of the restaurants at the back of the newsletter.

We appeared in today’s The Brunei Times

Mr. Kurapak giving some pointers

During the press conference for LFHW and thanks to all those attended especially the local media

Group photo with the sponsors and partners for this year’s LFHW

I can’t wait for coverage of restaurants and cafes this year. This picture is taken from the new ice bar in town – Shinobu

M. Hana Bakery is already having orders for her Tapak Kuda. Click image to find out more!!!

There will be competition for readers to win prizes. This will be conducted through quizzes and social network – Instagram and Twitter. Winners can win complimentary sungkai vouchers, Oh My Card membership cards as well as electronic gadgets sponsored by Netcom Computer House.

The official bank for LFHW is Bank Islam Brunei Darussalam while the main sponsors for LFHW are b•mobile and Netcom Computer House. Other partners are Oh My Card, Social Deal, Pentagram Design, Laqvin Boutique, Jen Studio and Silver Wings Services.

UBD FM is the official radio where listeners can win Sungkai vouchers.

For any interested parties who wants to participate in LFHW, you can email at ranoadidas(a)gmail(dot)com or call 8677773. You can follow their updates through Twitter @lfhwbrunei and instragam @lovefoodhatewaste