| Danial Norjidi |
SINCE opening to the public in February, the Business Helpdesk has received a positive response from entrepreneurs and business owners.
Speaking to the Bulletin recently at the Helpdesk, which is located on the first floor of the Design and Technology (D&T) Building, Ilie Rahman, Executive Officer at Darussalam Enterprise (DARe) explained,“At our Business Helpdesk, people can come to the D&T Building and physically speak to someone and log in their issues and get feedback or enquire there, or they can do the same thing via the hotline or online through the business portal available on business.gov.bn.”
On how the system works, she shared, “What happens when a visitor logs in an issue is that a case analyst is assigned to their issue and we will get back to them within two weeks. This is with the objective of resolving the issue or to provide a status update to that issue. It depends on the complexity.
“Generally the type of issues that we receive relate to most of the agencies that are housed in the Business Support Centre, which is why we’ve invited them to come and sit here.”
A number of agencies have stations at the Business Helpdesk, including the Labour Department, Authority for Building Control and Construction Industry (ABCi), Land Department, Registry of Companies and Business Names (ROCBN), Royal Customs and Excise Department and many more.
“Initially when the Helpdesk was introduced on the Enterprise Open Day, the majority of issues were related to the ABCi and Labour Department, which is why we invited them to come and be stationed here.”
“There’s a plan to do an integration of all the different agencies’ online systems under one single portal,” she said. “That’s the plan, to do that sort of integration, but that’s something that will take time.”
She said that, in the meantime,the plan is to provide links to all the different agencies’ online systems on the www.business.gov.bn website.
Ilie Rahman, DARe Executive Officer at the Business Helpdesk. – DANIAL NORJIDI
This, she explained, is so “you can go to one place and find it all listed there, rather than having to search individual agencies’ websites and trying to find their respective online systems. At least everything will be centralised on the business.gov.bn website.”
Asked how visitors have responded to the Helpdesk, she said, “It’s been generally very positive. I think easing access to the different government agencies is obviously a bonus for people. You just come to one place rather than going to all the different offices to find out what’s happening with their approval and the applications and so on.”
“Having to come to just one place is obviously beneficial for them, and also providing that helpdesk has been very good because we have been very welcoming to entrepreneurs who have issues.”
“We’ve been very encouraging to entrepreneurs, saying if you have an issue, do log it in so that we can help you find out what is actually going on with your application, or the reason for certain delays, or perhaps to attain a clear reason as to why you’ve been rejected. You can log this in with us and we follow up on your behalf.”
On how forthcoming people have been with their issues, she shared that some were a bit worried about formally logging in their issues because of fearing “any backlash that they might face.”
She said that their approach has been one of trying to understand and help the communication of the company and the relevant government agencies.
“A lot of times, these agencies will actually provide an answer, such as the reason why it’s been delayed is because the company didn’t provide us with the right documents. So there’s been a lot of back and forth.”
Going forward, the Business Helpdesk will be placed under the Business Support Centre, which DARe is looking to launch in April. Speaking on this, Ilie said, “The objective of the Business Support Centre is to be IT driven, so when we came up with the idea for the Business Support Centre, we wanted all the different agencies’ individual systems to be integrated under one single portal.”
This, she explained, is so that “the agency representatives themselves don’t have to be housed here, so that our own people are able to utilise their systems and actually then advise visitors to the Business Support Centre.”
“The physical centre itself provides an alternative avenue for people to come and seek assistance, because there will still be people who prefer the physical interaction with someone, but the actual objective is to provide assistance online. So anywhere you are, doesn’t matter what district you’re in, you can actually access the different systems online. It’s in a more aligned way.”
On the topic of simplifying applications themselves, she said that they are already in discussions with several respective agencies.
“We’re working together with the Ease of Doing Business team and the eGNC team who are also then speaking to all the respective agencies on how to improve their own internal processes,” she shared. “So even online, there’s plenty of room for improvement in simplifying the online process itself.”
Sharing her own experience, She said, “Sometimes I man the desk as well, so I get to speak to a lot of the entrepreneurs who come in, and in general, just listening to their problems and trying to understand what the issue is, for me it’s very helpful, because if the same issue keeps coming up, then it enforces the fact that we can speak to this agency and say it’s not just one or two companies that have said something about a particular agency or progress,” she shared.
“We’ve been collecting statistics and it’s quite a lot, and when the majority of it is about a particular issue, it is something we can raise up, saying it needs to be improved or modified,” she continued.
“In general, all the agencies are welcoming as well for the feedback, because everyone wants to ease doing business in Brunei.”
Adding on, she highlighted that the aim is to be seen as an action centre where people can easily bring all their issues and your feedback.
“What we want to do is basically implement your suggestions and recommendations, raise up your issues and any challenges you’re facing as an entrepreneur, and we want to escalate it and bring it to all the different agencies and help create a more conducive business environment for the local entrepreneurs.”
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