Wednesday 2 July 2008

Brunei and Oil Love Affair

My friend Roger Lawrey talks about Brunei's diversification.
I couldn't agree more.

Salaam.
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I personally feel, there are people in the region who is looking at Brunei as a country of opportunity in years to come. Immigrants, skilled workers, businesses etc.

Being a non-Bruneian, I see Brunei as the most exciting country in the next decade in ASEAN region. Why? Its because the fact that they diverting from natural resources means that more businesses, investment, work for the skilled workers will be needed, if they intend to diversify big and quickly in the 3 areas they intend to tap in, mainly halal branding, tourism & islamic banking. And blessed with the captial and income from resources as a headstart, i could imagine it being the next UAE or Qatar in terms of development, that is if some of the policies, mindset of the general, esp younger population etc are changed.

But if the ball dosent start rolling, it will all be just plans without any results. Once it starts rolling, i wont be surprised to see them rise rapidly.

2 July 2008 at 17:45
Anonymous said...

The only critical factor missing in Dr Lawrey's academic analysis is probably the vital Human Resource Development (HRD) side of the economics equation i.e. the right qualified, skilled, talented professional people like engineers (in dire shortage now!); drillers; geologists, etc. for the deep-water greenfields which are rich in gas, much more than oil per se.

I am highly optimistic that the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) territorial dispute between the Brunei and Malaysian governments will be resolved amicably i.e. Win-Win solution! However, are young Bruneians bracing themselves for the widely available opportunities in highly-specialized deep-water oil and gas workscope activities?

Presently, even the second largest employer (Brunei Shell) is being faced with 'brain-drain' issues of their qualified and experienced Bruneian engineers opting for overseas jobs in greener pastures like Saudi Aramco and other Middle-eastern destinations.

Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) is only this year struggling to set up its all-new BSP-sponsored engineering faculty (but then only limited disciplines!). Why the heck only NOW UBD started to realise how critically important it is to churn out engineering degree holders for an oil and gas producing nation like Brunei? The Institute of Technology Brunei (ITB) should have been merged with UBD in the first place ages ago! Simply because ITB wants to defend its egoistic independence as a technical institution is a lame rationale, indeed! And yet ITB's Information Technology (IT) graduates are nowhere near the expected qualification standards as required by the E-Government set-ups within the Civil Service or even the Private Sector for that matter. Their engineering grads' qualities are left to be desired by the industry itself.

UBD should start to prioritise courses in technical fields in which the the demand for such graduates in the local and global job markets is much higher now!

7 July 2008 at 16:16

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