Brunei Shell Petroleum Company Sdn Bhd (BSP) In-Country Value (ICV) Department, supported by the Brunei Innovation Lab (BIL), held a virtual ICV Forum on Information Technology (IT) and Digitalisation on Wednesday, January 12, 2022.
The event was officiated by Hj Mohd Jaafar bin Hj Awang Bakar, BSP Corporate Manager and was attended by more than 30 local IT companies including start-ups and students from local Higher Institutions such as Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD), Universiti Teknologi Brunei (UTB), Institute of Brunei Technical Education (IBTE), Politeknik Brunei (PB), Universiti Islam Sultan Sharif Ali (UNISSA) and others.
Also in attendance at the event were Romeo Wee Edong, In-Country Value Director at Ministry of Energy, and Mr Javed Ahmed, CEO Darussalam Entreprise (DARe).
The ICV Forum on IT and Digitalisation is a series of events that kicked off in late 2020 with the objective to identify potential talents within the local IT industry. The initiative aims to build new collaborations with local IT companies and to promote the development of local technology entrepreneurs. As an outcome, BSP has signed IT framework agreements with 5 local SMEs to date, two of which are i-Usahawan companies.
“The impact of COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of Industry 4.0 have created both challenges and opportunities for us to be more creative on how we solve our problems”, addressed Hajah Rosita Haji Hassan, BSP In-Country Value Manager in her welcoming remarks.
Hajah Rosita added that several opportunity framing sessions on IT and Digitalisation were held in 2021 and as a result, 10 technology domains have been identified as having significant importance to the country. Hajah Rosita also shared that the Brunei Innovation Lab (BIL) will act as the nucleus to mobilise the ecosystem on this development with IT techpreneurs to be at the heart of the ecosystem, to create the solution to solve real-world problems not only for Brunei but for the global market.
In the forum, attendees had the opportunity to learn about the Oil and Gas industry, as well as the BSJV company registration and tendering process and requirements in order to participate in business activities within BSJV.
Darussalam Enterprise (DARe), Shell LiveWIRE Brunei, Brunei Intellectual Property Office (BruIPO), Jana Kapital Sdn Bhd and Brunei Innovation Lab (BIL) also presented on various entrepreneurship programmes and initiatives such as bootcamps and masterclasses that are available to local companies.