| Danial Norjidi |
AS PART of its aim to nurture and support local enterprises, DARe (Darussalam Enterprise) officially launched its Made in Brunei Initiative yesterday.
The ambitious endeavour was inaugurated by His Royal Highness Prince Haji Al-Muhtadee Billah ibni His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah, the Crown Prince and Senior Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office.
The launching ceremony took place at the BRIDEX International Conference Centre in Jerudong in conjunction with the 1st MSME Innovation Conference and Expo and the Brunei China-Asean Expo (CAEXPO) Exhibition 2017, which was officiated by His Royal Highness.
The Made in Brunei initiative aims to create awareness locally and internationally that Brunei produces high quality products. It will especially help micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to enter high value segments that may have high entry costs, thereby increasing their visibility and sales. In the first phase, the Made in Brunei initiative will be launched in three areas – an in-flight brochure; display in key locations; and supermarket shelves.
The Royal Brunei Airlines (RB) will carry in its flights the Unexpected Treasures in-flight brochures that feature several high quality locally-made products that can be purchased online via the Unexpected Treasures website www.unexpectedtreasures.com.bn.
His Royal Highness Prince Haji Al-Muhtadee Billah ibni His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah, the Crown Prince and Senior Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office taking a look at the Unexpected Treasures in-flight brochure yesterday at BRIDEX International Conference Centre in Jerudong
His Royal Highness Prince Haji Al-Muhtadee Billah ibni His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah, the Crown Prince and Senior Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office during the showcase of the Made in Brunei products. – PHOTOS: AZROL AZMI
High quality locally-made products will also be showcased in attractive and exclusive museum display shelves at key high-traffic locations in Brunei. Such displays aim to increase awareness to support and buy local products via the Unexpected Treasures website.
In addition, there will be several specially constructed attractive and visible ‘Made in Brunei’ shelves to carry locally-made products. These shelves will be launched in five supermarkets including Hua Ho (Tanjung Bunut Branch), Supa Save (Mata-Mata Branch), Giant Rimba, Soon Lee (Lambak Branch) and Sim Kim Huat (The Airport Mall Branch).
Currently, a total of over 40 products including food, health and beauty, handicraft, heritage and unique hand-made items are part of the first phase of the initiative and DARe is looking to increase the line of products.
Speaking to the Sunday Bulletin, Javed Ahmad, the CEO of DARe said, “If you look around Brunei, there are lots of exciting products being made and particularly when you look at something like this it’s very much part of our heritage, very much part of our tradition, and we want to create an awareness within the country as well as to the visiting public from around the world on quality products that are available in Brunei.
“So in the process what we do is to basically promote a traditional Bruneian industry, and once there is a strong demand, there will also be a continuous demand for high quality products, from visitors as well as locals alike. That is aimed in terms of just ensuring that the industry flourishes over the longer term. So that’s our objective, in bringing some of the very traditional Bruneian industries to the world at large.
“There are two initiatives. One is at the top end and the other is in terms of food items,” he said. “What we do not want is to have a static display. The display should be continuously changing to provide opportunities to new and emerging businesses to display.
“We are in close contact with our close customers – the micro, small and medium sized enterprises – and we are constantly looking for new ideas with a view to promote their products in the supermarkets.”
Karam Chand, the CEO of Royal Brunei Airlines said, “As a national airline, we always want to join hands with our sister companies in Brunei, and if there’s a way we can help we always help.”
He noted that RB is in an advantageous position. “We are in international markets already. We have a very well established sales, marketing and promotional platform. We’ve got a very good digital platform, so we can help to leverage all of that.”
The CEO shared that the Unexpected Treasures brochures will be available on RB flights in a week. Asked if the brochures will be available on every flight, he said, “Yes, that’s the plan. On every flight, in and out, the brochures will be there. If people want to take it home, they can do so and visit the website later.”
He also noted that RB intends to do more. “We want to have a fairly good range of in-flight entertainment options, a good range of videos and information on Brunei and products.”
Adding on, he confirmed that RB is very much behind the initiative. “We want to support this. We are in a very advantageous position already, we are in the global market and we have a captive audience on our planes. If we can showcase a little bit more about Brunei, of course, that helps.”
Pehin Datu Singamanteri Colonel (Rtd) Dato Seri Setia (Dr) Awang Haji Mohammad Yasmin bin Haji Umar, the Minister of Energy and Industry at the Prime Minister’s Office and Chairman of DARe also spoke on the initiative, saying, “This is very exciting time, actually, for our MSMEs. All this is made possible as part and parcel of DARe’s initiative to really help our local MSMEs to go outside of Brunei.”
Touching on the aspect of the initiative that will see locally made products displayed on ‘Made in Brunei’ shelves at supermarkets, he said, “We are not creating business as usual. We have got cooperation from big supermarkets to sell these products. And this, nobody has done it before. So this is something that is very exciting.”
DARe shared that those interested to be a part of this initiative can submit a brief description of their business/company, a brief description of the products, prices of products as well as pictures of the products to madeinbrunei@dare.gov.bn or call +6732384836 (ext 244).
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