Earlier this week I was invited by the High Commission of India, Brunei Darussalam to be a member of a small 7-man panel.
My scope was to present the Infocom Federation Brunei (IFB) profile and to talk about potential areas of collaboration between India and Brunei – whilst being mindful that the other Bruneian speakers would also touch on these areas of collaboration.
(Slides & speaking notes after the break)
Slide 1 – Introduction
Hello good morning – my name is Pengiran Izam and I have been invited here to tell you a little bit more about the Infocom Federation Brunei – the IFB.
I am also going to share with you a few points on some possible areas of collaboration, but I shall leave it to my two esteemed colleagues from Brunei’s ICT industry to elaborate more on the areas of collaboration.
Slide 2 & 3 – Formation
Formation. IFB was formed on the 15th of August 2007. We are a non-profit national body dedicated to growing and nurturing the ICT industry in Brunei.
The Federation represents more than 2,000 employees with a range of skillsets, ranging from multimedia design and graphics design to database administration, system analysis and design to network administration and systems administration.
The Federation is now more than 30 members strong.
Slide 4 & 5 – Vision
Slide 6 & 7 – Objectives
Slide 8 & 9
Slide 10 & 11 – The Measure
The measure … what is the criteria by which we determine membership to the Federation.
Slide 12 & 13: Celebrate our achievements
Celebration … the key Achievements and Milestones of the Federation included the above.
And just to clarify something here – IFB participated in the APICTA generation where a Brunei company succeeded in winning one of the major prizes. This clarifies one of the previous points made by one of our previous speakers who said that there “No known IPR in Brunei’s ICT industry”.
Slide 14, 15 & 16: Collaboration
Potential areas of collaboration between our nations include: Space and Fiber Optics. Space is a unique area of collaboration because of the India Space Research Organisation. Some of the potential areas where we can work together includes the joint launching of space vehicles and satellites. This can dove tail quite nicely with Brunei’s strengths as a data centre location.
And secondly on Fiber optics – key to achieving Brunei’s vision of building a knowledge based economy is delivering a next generation broadband network infrastructure.
Conclusion
And now to conclude my presentation … I would like to share with you this little anecdote, this little learning that I have taken away during our time together.
When the IFB invited His Excellency and the Trigyn contingent to a dinner, His Excellency shared with us a common truth. This is attributed to Mahatma Gandhi: “There is enough in this world for all of our NEEDS, but not enough for all of our WANTS (originally greeds)“
As I was driving back that night, I was reflecting on this because it echoed very strongly with me.
Because, YM Tuan Hj Alaihuddin bin Pehin Orang Kaya Di-Gadong Seri Lela Dato Seri Utama Haji Awang Mohammad Taha, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Communications. His Excellency, Mr Rieward Warjri, High Commissioner of India. Fellow panel members. Distinguished Ladies & Gentlemen. Let us not stand by and wait for the conditions that we want. I say we seize this opportunity before us.
But we seize it after a thoughtful, considered strategy. Let us pick at those “low hanging fruit” that builds strongly on our nations comparative advantages.
India as an ICT superpower is a partner willing to join forces with Brunei. And we have much to offer: geopolitical stability and our well known Islamic credentials.
Because both of our nations need the same things. And in this way, we are more ALIKE than we are DIFFERENT.
We both need socio economic progress. We both need to build bridges with our international partners.
We all need ladies and gentlemen, to build upon the good work our Governments have done to develop this framework of collaboration.
And with that, Ladies & Gentlemen, I hand over to my colleagues from Brunei’s academia and industry to talk more about how we will seize this day and capitalise on the opportunities open to us.
Carpe diem!
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