| Izah Azahari |
THE Cottage and Youth Initiative Programme (CYiP) iCentre press conference was held yesterday at the Conference Room of the iCentre, Anggerek Desa Technology Park.
The press conference was chaired by Captain (Rtd) Zailan bin Pehin Dato Mohd Don, Advisor for the National Chamber of Commerce and Industry Brunei Darussalam (NCCIBD), in his capacity as the Principal Mentor of CYiP.
Also in attendance were CYiP Mentors Pengiran Haji Haris bin Pengiran Haji Duraman and Hajah Norhayati binti Abu Bakar, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Cube Junction Haji Ramlee bin Begawan Pehin Khatib Dato Paduka Zainuddin and team members of Cube Junction.
CYiP at iCentre is a private sector initiative through NCCIBD, whereby NCCIBD within its capacity will play an important role to promote Brunei small businesses on local economic development and international trade towards the Asean Economic Community (AEC), Asean +3 and BIMP-EAGA regions in line with the government’s Strategic Plan.
As Brunei is moving towards Sustainable Economy on Non-Oil and Gas sectors by 2035, while addressing current challenges and issues the Principal Mentor explained that apart from promoting entrepreneurial influence to create self-employment to reduce structural and frictional unemployment, CYiP’s current primary plan will be focusing on promoting businesses through an online retail platform on premium products, halal products, value-added products, small volume trading, providing services for nano and micro businesses as well as for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Explaining CYiP, the Principal Mentor said that it is a volunteer programme facilitated by relevant government agencies that focus on addressing the current challenges of nano and micro businesses as well as SMEs, such as product quality control, volume production, quality packaging, high operating expenses and market access, among others.
Their current programme is The Business Leadership Programme Group 001, which began in November 2016 and comprises Business Nature, E-Commerce Platform, Cosmetic Production, Women’s Apparel Clusters, Men’s Apparel Clusters as well as Food and Beverages (F&B) Product Cluster.
The press conference chaired by Captain (Rtd) Zailan bin Pehin Dato Mohd Don, Advisor for the NCCIBD in his capacity as the Principal Mentor of CYiP, and held yesterday at the Conference Room of the iCentre, Anggerek Desa Technology Park. – DEAN KASSIM
The Business Leadership Programme Group 001 aims to create market access for quality Brunei products to penetrate the global market, with the added objectives of producing successful business leaders to create a good environment as to influence the production of export products for others to follow suit; to produce quality medium- and high-end products; to promote brand-selling; to create top designers, top brands, top chefs and the like; to facilitate back-end support services for sustainable production, as well as to provide a focus group session on product quality, packaging and innovations.
CYiP is currently housing 19 brands, products and companies with one E-Commerce Platform, cube junction.com; two Cosmetic Productions, Beaute Rossera and Betye Kuan; two Men’s Apparel Clusters, Mattin H and Z&Z Collection; three Women’s Apparel Clusters, Zakiyah Zaini, Artsyglam and Ms Zu; one on Services, BD SME; two E-Commerce Services, Dcon SB and Concord Transworld Logistic; and eight F&B Product Clusters that comprise Mollo Spice by Mollo and Co, Sambal Tahai – Rizqussalam, RollsHaus, The Koppe Company, Eco Kampong, Mutiara, YuNas, and Dapur Ummi.
With CYiP having only been set up for just two months (since January 2017), its brands, products and companies are already making waves, as cubejunction.com will be setting up its Offline to Online (O2O) in Thailand.
In addition, the Beaute Rossera brand, a Beauty and Cosmetics product registered in Brunei Darussalam under the Beaute Rossera and owned by a local young entrepreneur with production facilities overseas, is now in the process of negotiation to export her products to the Middle East market.
The Artsyglam collection has also entered the Asean market as a designer label, Rizqussalam ‘Sambal Tahai’ will soon be entering the Philippines market and Mollo Spice will be exporting to Longrich, a network marketing company.
Elaborating on Mollo Spice, Captain (Rtd) Zailan further shared that it was established to create a purely local brand and high-end products to cater to the local and international markets with the use of high quality ingredients and mixtures that are innovative and versatile for a healthy and well-balanced diet.
This has placed Mollo as a premium brand in the country that is now currently waiting to receive its Brunei Darussalam Halal Certification.
“These handcrafted spices are specially blended with herb and spices in such a way to create their own individual taste to suit any palate,” said the Principal Mentor. “The Mollo Spice Mixing Lab is currently at the iCentre, Anggerek Desa Technology Park and also at Beribi, Gadong which is capable for an export standard.”
Mollo Spice will sign the Strategic Alliances Agreement with Longrich, established since 1986, for export production to Longrich between March 21 and 22 this year.
The signing will be witnessed by the NCCIBD on behalf of the CYiP.
Longrich is one of the largest and most advanced centres for research, development, manufacture and sale of cosmetics and healthcare products in China.
It is located in Changshu, Longrich Hi Tech Industrial Park, housing more than 2,000 products in eight categories, including household, cosmetic products, furniture, real estate and logistics, with products sold in over 50 countries.
It also includes 8,000 in OEM/ODM and has 10,000 employees, with an estimation of more than 1.5 million members or distributors worldwide.
The Mollo Spice Mission is to establish itself as an important brand that represent quality gourmet seasoning mixes through using quality ingredients, manufacturing and research, a creative marketing programme and a comprehensive distribution network using brick and mortar retail outlets, Internet presence and a consumer catalogue, as well as by utilising the multi-channel approach to reach the niche market for quality food products rapidly and efficiently.
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