Secret to IT success is in the 'industry mix'

BRUNEI needs to work on the "right mix" of human resources, technology and markets to develop its ICT (information and communication technology) sector, said a senior officer from India's Department of Information Technology yesterday.

Additional Secretary Rakesh Singh said that the Sultanate was already conducive for ICT growth, with its high quality of life, modern infrastructure and peaceful atmosphere.

"Therefore, with the right mix of the things that I have mentioned manpower, markets and technology if this is provided, then we are very confident that the ICT sector will make substantial progress in this country," he said.

Speaking on manpower, Singh said that India was fortunate as it had the necessary infrastructure, such as educational and research institutions, to produce an IT literate workforce that has "fuelled the IT revolution in India".

"That would be one of the major areas capacity building through human resource development that the industry in Brunei will have to look at in order to encourage growth of the IT sector," he said.

"It's a very competitive world. There is a global shrinkage in every sense of the term. There is freer movement of goods, services and manpower, therefore the industry in Brunei has to look its market a little bit closer," Singh said,

"In that context, we are very happy that His Majesty's government has launched a very ambitious e-Governance plan, where close to $1 billion is proposed to be invested over the next three to four years. This provides a huge opportunity to the local industry because you are operating at a local level," he added.

"It is also important that an enabling environment is provided to this industry so that it finds itself comfortable in operating from particular countries. To that end, Brunei provides a wonderful environment for that to take place," he said.

Singh was speaking during the "Interactive Workshop on Optimising ICT: Brunei-India Cooperation" held yesterday at the AiTi (Authority for Info-communications Technology Industry of Brunei Darussalam) building in Anggerek Desa.

Brunei Shell Petroleum Co Sdn Bhd IT Manager Hj Yahkup Hj Menudin said human capacity development in Brunei needed proper portfolio management because each sector had different requirements, and thus needed to be addressed independently.

The IT manager summed up that three levels of human capacity needed to be looked at: "awareness", where the human resource knew of ICT but did not necessarily have the skills to use it; "skill", where they had some level of competency to use ICT; and "mastery".

"Hopefully, in the long-term, if we can create a lot of 'masters' in different areas, we can export our human resources elsewhere as well," Hj Yahkup said.

The Brunei Times