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Kurapak Teknologi

Harnessing tech to address a nation's challenges

Apr 30, 2007 11:58

Bright sparks to be plugged in...

The Brunei Economic Development Board will soon open its first SME Innovation Center. Essentially, it is a business center for innovation and incubation focusing on research and software development.

It will act as a platform for entrepreneurs and newly established firms in the Information Communications Technology (ICT) sector to base their fledgling businesses through the provision of management guidance, technical assistance and consulting tailored to these young growing companies.

The building itself will house 23 fully wired plug-and-play Innovation units.

The concept is nothing new, of course, but the fact that it is opening in Brunei means that for the first time, bright young sparks who have a tech idea but no idea what to do with it, will be able to tap into a support network which will provide these idea a fighting chance to blossom into real-world deliverables.

Ahead of the launching of the center, BEDB has organized a THINK BIG forum to hear what these bright sparks have to say and how the center can assist them. Its also an exercise to survey the local techie landscape. I'd be really keen to see who turns up to this forum on Friday.

From the press release of the center's project implementation launching last year:

"It will be first a project, and after that it will be part of the reality of this country," said Dato Timothy Ong, acting chairman, Brunei Economic Development Board (BEDB), during his opening address at the launch of the SME Innovation Centre implementation project-cum-press conference.

He said: "The word innovation is used these days widely and loosely and sometimes without much meaning. What is this SME Innovation Centre?

"Firstly it represents the BEDB's focus and priority in terms of developing Brunei's small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs). We, BEDB, realize that no matter what we say about our grand plans and our visions to promote the economic development of this country, they will have no meaning unless those plans are translated into helping small Brunei businesses grow.

"This SME Innovation Centre is part of our ambition to grow and develop Brunei's small and medium-size enterprises. This Center will be an attractive building, but it will be more than just an attractive building... it will be a home to promising Brunei IT companies... it will be a place where young Bruneians with good ideas but not much means, or small Bruneian companies with a long way to go but requiring a helping hand, will find a congenial environment where they can develop their ideas, hopefully commercialize their ideas, and hopefully play on a larger stage than Brunei provides.

"It will be a launching pad for these companies to go beyond what they are doing, to achieving their full potential within Brunei and abroad. We recognise that a knowledge-based economy is a long journey but we see this as an important first step (the Center)," Dato Ong said.

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