Panel Discussion: India #Brunei ICT Scope and Potential for Collaboration

// February 2nd, 2010 // No Comments » // Business

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)

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CIMB is hiring for 3 positions in #brunei. CIMB is ranked #4 in M&A League table.

// January 31st, 2010 // No Comments » // Business

I spotted a job ad on Page 57 of the weekend Borneo Bulletin which I thought was worth sharing.

CIMB Group is hiring for: Senior Manager (3-5 years work experience, Master degree advantageous), Executive (1-3 years work experience, fresh graduates encouraged) and Assistant Executive (1-2 years experience with a Diploma).

FYI, CIMB (Commerce International Merchant Bankers Berhad) is the 5th largest bank in South East Asia by total assets. I think the job posting is blog worthy because:

(More after the break …)

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#brunei e-government advances the fastest in ASEAN over the period 2008 to 2010

// January 21st, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Technology

2008 to 2010 has been a great two years for e-Government in Brunei.

Some of our achievements over the past 2 years

We launched the e-Government strategic plan 2009-2014. This master plan creates a framework for all major stakeholders to work towards, it unifies the efforts of the public sector and the private sector with a common language and it clarifies the governance structures under which the continued public-private collaboration is to operate under.

The Brunei Government consolidated its efforts to deliver a common ICT infrastructure to Government Ministries, Agencies and Statutory bodies by launching the e-Government National Centre.

IFB ran it’s flagship event, the Brunei ICT Careers Day in 2008. During the Careers Day, the industry and employers had the opportunity to emphasise the importance of ICT to potential new hires, to match professionals with industrial needs and perhaps most importantly, to identify a pool of young & talented ICT professionals.

We implemented GEMS, the Government Employee Management System. This Government-wide enterprise system seeks to modernise human resource management within the Brunei Government. Reaching some 40,000+ Government employees, compared with the other e-Government projects, GEMS has one of the widest reach.

So how did this translate into our Rankings?

During Brunei’s previous assessment of e-Government readiness, we were slipping in the rankings (shout out to DebatingBrunei.blogspot.com!). Gradually slipping from a fairly high ranking in 2003 of 55/173 in 2003, down to 63/178 in 2004, down to 73/191 in 2005 and then down again to 87 in 2008.

For 2010 Brunei has risen up the rankings – we were the fastest rising in the 10-country ASEAN grouping. We went up from 87th to 68th place – an increase of 19 spots. Not quite regaining our spot from 2004, but definately a strong increase from prior year.

Extract below from UNPAN:

The down side?

On the Up side, Brunei scored well on: the e-Government index, the Infrastructure index and the Human Capital index

On the other hand, Brunei has scored pretty poorly on: the Online Service Index and the e-Participation Index.

The bottom line

For Brunei to live up to our expectations set in the National Development Plan 2007-2012, and in the e-Government Strategic Plan 2009-2014, we will expect to see some big changes.

Firstly, the results of the e-Government citizen survey (organised by PMO and IFB, in collaboration with EGNC and BAG) will come in. This will be interesting to analyse, because this will tell the e-Government stakeholders which government services are in greatest need of attention by implementing agencies. This kind of e-Participation

And to achieve improvements in the Online Service Index?

I think that very high on the Government agenda will likely be technologies like “Service Oriented Architecture” (SOA) and the “Enterprise Service Bus” (ESB). I feel that a key strategy to enhancing the depth and breadth of online services being offered to the Rakyat (Citizens) is not through brute force computerisation but rather through a thoughtful and most importantly … a coherent business NEEDS driven implementation that focuses on the essence of the problem. This is neatly described by Deloitte Consulting as “Service Thinking“.

Because after all, a brute force computerisation of existing processes doesn’t have the same potential to unlock public value to the Rakyat (Citizens) or to deliver meaningful e-Services.

Once we have identified the “pain points” through the e-Government citizen survey, we can then go about tackling the problem of putting some of these services online. In the language of the e-Government Strategic Plan 2007-2014, the “SOA” is called the “Government Enterprise Architecture”.

I’m looking forward to the next 2-3 years to see the kinds of services that will be implemented in a SOA-driven approach, or as they call it, a “Government Enterprise Architecture” driven approach. And remember! This is all towards delivering e-Services and with a main objective of delivering meaningful e-Services for the public and the nation.

IFRS for SMEs – What does the future hold for Brunei?

// December 21st, 2009 // No Comments » // Business

2 weeks ago at the sidelines of the AFA16 conference, Izam Said asked me for my thoughts on International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption in Brunei.

Over the last two weeks I’ve had more thoughts on IFRS and some thoughts on a potential way forward for us in Brunei.

More after the break.

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Guest Post on re:The Auditors

// December 16th, 2009 // No Comments » // Business

Francine McKenna and I correspond over Twitter on various topics covering Corporate Governance and the “Expectations Gap” between auditors and the stakeholders they serve. She has more than twenty years of experience in the consulting and professional services environment including tenures in both the US and abroad at PwC, KPMG/BearingPoint, JP Morgan and Jefferson Wells/Manpower. She is a freelance writer and a frequent speaker in and out of the accounting/audit world.

Francine invited me to author a guest post on her blog, “re: The Auditors“. She writes and speaks passionately, authoritatively and most importantly, critically about the audit profession and the auditor’s role in capital markets.

I jumped at the chance to author a guest post on her blog, and this is the result. It’s a summary of the first Plenary session at AFA16 where I was invited to present a paper.

http://retheauditors.com/2009/12/15/a-guest-post-from-bruneis-pengiran-izam/

If you’re an accountant, I heartily recommend adding her RSS news feed to your newsreader and keep up to date with the latest developments that affects all accountants everywhere.

Financial scandals – Have auditors succumbed to greed?

// December 10th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Business

This week, we hosted the 16th ASEAN Federation of Accountants confernce here in Brunei and I was very pleased when I received an invitation from BICPA and the organising committee to present a paper on the above topic.

I’ve uploaded my slides to slideshare.net, and I also attach high res slides after the break below.

Overbudget & overdue – TAIB Airport Mall

// November 23rd, 2009 // No Comments » // Business

In the ongoing series of blog posts about TAIB …

… well, I’ll just link this article on Brunei.fm and you can check it out yourself.

Brunei’s rice self-sufficiency targets

// November 23rd, 2009 // No Comments » // Business

I read two interesting blog posts at Brunei Resources on Brunei’s rice self-sufficiency targets. The posts discuss the state of rice imports, hovering at around 30,000 metric tonnes per annum and of the feasibility of Brunei reaching self-sufficiency of rices.

So I thought to run a short analytic on it … based on data From Brunei.fm and agriculture.gov.bn:

Current –> 884 metric tonnes of production vs. 1,356 hectares area under paddy 2008 = 0.65 tonnes per hectare
Short term goal 2010 (13 months from now) –> 5,800 metric tonnes of production vs. 2,360 hectares  = 2.46 tonnes per hectare. [Note that the 2,360 hectares doesn't reconcile to 4,904 ha new + 1,356 ha existing land area on page 19 of the report]
Medium term goal 2015 (5 years from now) –> 18,000 metric tonnes of production vs. 5,360 hectares  = 3.36 tonnes per hectare.

More analysis after the break:

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TAIB financial statements 31 December 2008

// November 8th, 2009 // No Comments » // Business

The accounts for Perbadanan Tabung Amanah Islam Brunei were published in the Weekend Borneo Bulletin (pages 55-58), for the year ended 31 December 2008. Part of my savings and investment portfolio is squirrelled away in TAIB Deposit Certificates (TDC’s) and I’m always interested to read about how my investments are doing.

As I was skimming through the accounts, I thought:

1. “Dividends” of $27m were paid out during the year, on annual profits of $44m. That’s a 61% payout ratio
   These are paid out to customers – the $1,514m deposits from customers (see note #9)
   So from the “Body” point of view – the customers = shareholders, and dividends are payable to them.
2. Accounts are prepared for “true and fair view” of the “Body”. The notes mention this is in accordance with “generally accepted accounting principles in Brunei Darussalam”.
   It took a while for me to figure out – but the reason for (1) above is because these principles are “modified to comply with the principles of Syariah”.
3. The return of 1% to 2.5% to deposit holders (calculated on average daily balance) is better than inflation rates of 0.4% in Brunei.
4. The Syariah Advisory Committee opines that the operations of TAIB have been conducted with the Syariah principles, to the best of their knowledge.
5. $16m has been provided for the diminution in value of unquoted investments. The provision increases by $12m this year, on a b/f balance of $76m investments. $12m is nearly half of the 2009 “dividends” payout.
   
6. $3m of the $12m “Building” fixed assets are Reclassified in the year to Leasehold properties, renovations and computer equipment. Interestingly, $500,000 (to the Dollar!) is reclassified as Computer Equipment. I’d be interested to see a $500,000 investment in Computer Equipment.

   Just as interesting, how did the $12m get classed as “Buildings” in the first place when a cool half a million (to the Dollar yo!) was Computer Equipment.

7. Audit fee of $75k, is 3 times what the previous auditors were billing. Goes to show that not all audits are won on the back of “Who lodged the cheapest possible bid”.
   This year TAIB spent$21k on consultancy fees, which is lower than the $133k on consultancy fees spent in prior year.
   In a year where TAIB invests $92m in unquoted investments, where are the due diligence and legal fees? Unless they’re not written off in the year and are included in the asset on the balance sheet? I’d be interested to know more about the Governance, Risk management and Compliance structures in place to guard against further write offs in unquoted investments.
8. $424k is charged to the P&L in the year for “Provision for retirement benefits”, and $176k in the year prior.
   I’m a little confused because in the accounts, under Notes for “Employee benefits costs”, the accounts only mention that TAIB contributes to Employee’s Trust Fund (TAP) which is a Defined Contribution scheme.  Because the Employer’s contribution rate of 5% has not changed from 2007 to 2008, does this mean that Employees at TAIB increased 2.4x fold over prior year? Or maybe salaries were increased 2.4x over prior year?

   Or maybe TAIB has a defined benefit scheme for some employees, and the charge to the provision of $424k in the year is to cover pension liabilities for their future retirement? If so – that’s a sweet deal. And one that may not be fully disclosed in the accounts.

More after the break.

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Introducing … Mr Mark Lankester

// October 15th, 2009 // No Comments » // Musings

Ladies and Gentlemen, Tuan-tuan, dan Puan-Puan yang dihormati, Assalamualaikum.

I have the honour of introducing for you today two distinguished gentlemen, Mr Mark Lankester who will be delivering today’s Keynote Luncheon Address; and Mr Brian Koh, who will be running the brief Q&A session after the Address. The topic of today’s Forum is Innovation … and the transformational effect Innovation has on the Enterprise.

So you may be wondering … why have we invited a Hotelier to talk to us today about Innovation? Maybe he’s here to talk to us about the Hotel 2.0? Or maybe about how the Internet has disintermediated the hospitality industry, how Hotels can harness the power of the Internet to sell direct to the end users? I mean … what was the last “sexy” innovation to come from the hospitality industry?

Well let me tell you. It is my humble opinion that Mr Lankester is second to none in this region, as an expert on the transformational effects of Innovation. After all … he has over 10 years of experience working in an industry that has been ravaged by the effects of disruptive technologies.

Any Guesses where he comes from? He comes from the Music industry.

Mr Lankester became the CEO of TuneHotels.com after a stint in the New Media industry from 2003 to 2009 and after holding a number of senior positions in Warner Music from 1992 to 2002, culminating in a 4-year appointment as the Chairman and CEO of Warner Music Publishing Asia in 1998 to 2002.

Mr Lankester is no stranger to the disruptive power of technology, having been at the helm of an Asia Pacific Music distribution operation right at the height of the popularity of the Napster file sharing network.  To me, this would have been a time of great “Crisis” in the entertainment industry. Now … “Crisis” … that is an interesting word …

When written in Chinese, the word “Crisis” is composed of two characters.
One represents Danger, and the other represents Opportunity.

And most sane people I know run at the sight of danger. And usually in the other direction. With Mr Lankester he instead embraced the unknown and plunged full-throttle into the New Media industry, working to convert threats into opportunities and innovating to develop new business models to monetize entertainment assets in new digital portfolios.

During his time running Warner Music, Mr Lankester identified the need to package the “Old world” of CD’s and music albums and home video products with new technologies born of the Internet in order to create a competitive advantage in a difficult, changing and chaotic market place.

And it is perhaps this valuable trait of his … his tenacity to innovate in the face of disruptive technology … which I now turn to him for his insights  as to how I can best harness innovation for the transformation of the Enterprises I lead, I advise and I have an effect on. Ladies & Gentlemen! Give it up please … for Mr Mark Lankester!