| Danial Norjidi |
THERE are almost 11,000 registered unemployed jobseekers in Brunei, and the Minister of Energy and Industry at the Prime Minister’s Office has set a target to reduce this number by at least 4,000 by September next year.
Pehin Datu Singamanteri Colonel (Rtd) Dato Seri Setia (Dr) Awang Haji Mohammad Yasmin bin Haji Umar spoke with the Bulletin yesterday on the sidelines of the Brunei Job Fair 2016.
Sharing statistics from the first day of the job fair, as well as existing data from Job Centre Brunei, the minister said that the first day of the Brunei Job Fair 2016 welcomed a total of 2,940 jobseekers and 5,476 visitors.
From the total number of visitors, 1,096 were identified as employed, 1,667 were identified as unemployed and newly registered jobseekers at Job Centre Brunei, while 177 were identified as still studying.
Out of these 1,667 jobseekers, 1,107 are from Brunei-Muara District, 290 are from Tutong District, 252 are from Belait District and 18 are from Temburong District.
It was also shared that from the 9,282 jobseekers that were already registered at Job Centre Brunei, only 127 of these jobseekers attended the job fair on Sunday.
Based on existing data and statistics from the first day of the job fair, there are almost 11,000 registered unemployed Bruneians, of which about 35 per cent do not have qualifications beyond secondary school.
The exact number of registered unemployed jobseekers is 10,949. Out of this number, the breakdown in terms of highest qualification is as follows: 1,785 have degree and above, 965 have HND, 2,520 have vocational/technical qualifications, 345 have post-secondary, 2,400 have secondary and 1,477 have below secondary qualifications.
Some of the booths at the Brunei Job Fair during the event. – DANIAL NORJIDI
It was also shared that there are 1,457 inactive jobseekers in the system.
After sharing the data, the minister highlighted that the target is to “reduce unemployment by at least 4,000” by next September.
“This is my target. This is what I’m asking my people to work on. This is a target that I will not negotiate,” he said.
He said that there are over 2,500 vacancies at the Job Fair, as well as another 2,279 direct job opportunities from foreign direct investment (FDI) projects from now until 2018.
He noted that every year, there are more and more jobseekers coming in as more graduates enter the fold, along with dropouts as well. As such, an ambitious target is needed to be able to make sure that there continue to be jobs, he affirmed.
Asked on maintaining sustainability of job creation, the minister said, “We have to be innovative in the way we retain our workforce.” He noted the implementation of workforce in the oil and gas sector.
“When one contract finishes, you want to continue another contract, you rollover the workforce – you use the same workforce.”
“We are looking to do this for the non-oil and gas sectors as well,” he said. “We can only do this if we set every tender to be embedded with local business development, and thus ensure job creation.
“We want people to understand this,” he said, highlighting the importance of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
“We need MSMEs to be sustainable as well. MSMEs have demonstrated that they can create jobs for the people.”
The minister noted that in Malaysia, MSMEs are the main provider of employment collectively, with a 65.5 per cent contribution in 2015.
“This is why our local procurement is very important,” he asserted. “If you look at Brunei, in construction and a lot of areas, we have not put very much emphasis on job creation for Bruneians.”
“Everybody can benefit from this. This is the one nation approach,” he added.
The minister also underlined the importance of continuing to collect the right data, and highlighted that penghulus and village heads have a crucial role to play towards adding value to the data.
The Brunei Job Fair 2016 continues into its final day today at Exhibition Halls 1 and 2 of the Bridex International Exhibition Centre.
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