Cyber Park to promote ICT

Pehin Zakaria delivering his speech.

His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Negara Brunei Darussalam has consented to make ICT development as a national agenda which should be supported by all levels of the society to be able to increase competitiveness in this era of k-economy. This was highlighted in the Minister of Communication Pehin Dato Hj Awg Zakaria's speech at the official launching of the Information Communication Technology Award (BICTA) 2004 yesterday. The sultanate is currently in the process towards k-economy and has got the basic that enables us to head towards k-economy, he said. The country now has an advance Infocommunication infrastructure such as RAGAM-21, International Submarine Cable System, GPRS Mobile Phone Service or 2.5G and the recent New Generation Network, he added. This Infocommunication infrastructure would give the opportunity to small and medium entrepreneurs to think of infocommunications oriented businesses that they get involved with such as content and software development, portal enterprises, to contribute to the country's Infocommunications industry growth. The change of mindset in receiving new technologies and commitment in using it to increase productivity and effectiveness in the process of work is also of importance and every individual should be ready to learn new things and adapt to the new environment based on the new technology. With our vision to become a cyber centre in the region and make the sultanate as one of the 'most-wired' country in the region, the need of more services and application in e-government and e-commerce is expected and the government is actively planning to build a Cyber Park to promote and develop the Infocommunications Technology industry in the country, he disclosed. The Cyber Park will become an excellence centre to nurture the development of technopreneurs in the field of ICT with incentives such as incubator facilities and skill knowledge support. System and equipment will be provided. Not only will the park be useful for ICT users but it will also run innovative activities to create new knowledge. The need to protect and to apply k-economy is important as knowledge alone is not enough to win the economic competition. The minister said patents are important measures to gauge creativity and capability of a country that can come up with ideas.