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Driving the ICT industry through
"e-Government"
Extract
from ASIA Inc Special Supplement July 2002
By Mohammad Reeda Hj Malik, Business Development Manager of Sapura (B) Sdn Bhd
July 2002
In the wake of the financial crisis of
1997 and the plummeting price of oil at that time, His Majesty's government
set up the Brunei Darussalam Economic Council to review the economy and to
suggest ways to strengthen it. In the Council's report, a central theme was
the need for Brunei to diversify its economy away from its traditional dependence on oil
and gas.
Amongst the elements
recommended to help diversify the economy was the development of the
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry. This resulted in a
flurry of activity in the ICT sector from both the government and private
sector. Admittedly, these activities are limited only to second (system
integration) and third (supply & maintenance) tier projects. Little or no
first tier (research and development) activity is currently underway.
Brunei's economy has always been primarily government driven. Predictably,
the activities of Brunei's fledgling ICT industry are mainly centered around
government related projects.
Under the 8th National
Development Plan, the Brunei government has allocated over B$900 million for the development of
the ICT sector. A substantial part of this budget is devoted to the
development of infrastructure for the government's "e- Government"
initiative to apply information technology to the operations of government.
The "E-Government"
initiative will expand the breadth and depth of the fledgling ICT industry in
Brunei from merely piecemeal projects addressing vertical needs, to
multi-million dollar projects which address the horizontal needs of
government.
The Ministry of Finance flagship
called TAFIS is the first of these massive projects to rollout. Other
projects which have been identified as flagships include Human Resource
Management System (HRMIS), Multipurpose Smart Card, EG Centre Services, EG
Bandwidth Services, e-Health, e-Education, Mukim.net and the Brunei Darussalam Eco-Cyber Park.
All these flagships point towards
government being the leading edge user of ICT in Brunei. ICT is now beginning to be seen within government as a profit center
rather than purely from a procurement perspective.
In line with the global trend
to outsource information system management processes, the Brunei government is also moving towards an outsourcing model. This is a
welcome development as it will generate plenty of downstream activities especially in the ICT services sector.
The trend is also towards
localization of the I CT industry in Brunei and one of the most welcome moves from which the private sector will
benefit greatly is the setting up of the Brunei Information Technology (BIT)
Corporation under the business development plan of the Brunei Information
Technology Council.
As a corporate body, the BIT
corporation will focus on the promotion and development of an indigenous ICT
industry. It will also form partnerships with others to carry out its
functions which include
- research and strategic innovations,
- corporate and business developments,
- technology park related developments,
- research and development information technology in line with Brunei's national information technology mission and national
philosophy,
- and other relevant ICT activities.
The challenges ahead as I see it are as
follows:
- Human resources - How do we develop ICT literate human
resources to service the ICT Industry both within and outside Brunei? Brunei's ICT industry requires a new breed of worker, the
"knowledge worker". The industry emphasizes the need for creativity and innovation. Our education
system may need to adjust itself according to the new requirements of
the new economy.
- Government - How quickly can government turn itself into the
leading edge user? How do we address the problem of
"over-cautiousness" and inertia in government? With the
current drive towards electronic
government, the Brunei government has the opportunity to progress up the IT maturity
scale fairly quickly. The problem of "over-cautiousness" can
be addressed when there is an increase in empowerment within the ranks
of the civil service to make certain decisions which will benefit the
nation at the end of the day.
- Private/Business sector - How do we foster a private/ business
sector capable of anticipating and seizing opportunities rather than
simply reacting to developments? Brunei Darussalam's E-Initiatives
present a unique opportunity for the private/business sector to develop
itself through implementation of large scale IT projects like the
e-government flagships. This is an opportunity not to be missed and the
private/business sector needs to adopt a pro-active approach in
educating and creating awareness among their government counterparts on
what is available out there.
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