‘Gov’t, commercial entities working together to help local businesses’

RACHEL THIEN

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

Saturday, April 16, 2016

BUSINESS ease has been enhanced by the joint effort of government agencies and commercial establishments to help small and medium enterprises, said the deputy minister of finance

Dato Paduka Dr Hj Mohd Amin Liew Abdullah said the agencies are also coming up with solutions and technology in their platforms to help SMEs.

He said this on the sidelines of a working visit by Deputy Sultan His Royal Highness Prince Haji Al-Muhtadee Billah to the DARe (Darussalam Enterprise) Business Support Centre on Thursday.

The deputy minister told The Brunei Times that it was encouraging to see some of the banks – who were also present at the centre on Thursday – showcase new platforms for SMEs.

BAG Networks also came up with a new product called Cendana to help SMEs.

“Many years ago, such technology may be beyond the reach of SMEs because it was expensive. But today, new innovation... have made it cheaper and it is now within the reach of SMEs,” said Dato Dr Hj Mohd Amin.

“These are positive developments and, hopefully, we will continue to develop and address the needs of the SMEs, more and more as we move forward,” he said.

To existing and budding entrepreneurs, the deputy minister called on them to make use of the business support centre.

“The government, through the efforts of various agencies, managed to put this centre up within a very short time. We have seen a lot of SMEs, large or small, making full use of this service,” he said.

He added the response of the centre has been good, however, DARe will also need to evolve and work to help businesses who are faced with new needs and challenges through time.

“Today, we are helping them solve whatever problems that they may have. But in the future, they may face other problems and we need to be able to continue to evolve ourselves, so that we can continue to serve and address the needs of the SMEs,” he said.

Dato Dr Hj Mohd Amin said he was impressed with what DARe has achieved in the short period since its establishment in January this year.

“We hope the local businesses see it the same way,” he said.

The deputy minister also urged businesses to step forward and provide suggestions on how DARe can improve their services..

“Over the last few months, I have seen DARe interact with more and more businesses. They have had talks and dialogues, and this hopefully will continue. A lot of businesses face fundamental issues, but hopefully when DARe helps them to move up the levels, the challenges they face will be different and DARe will continue to keep pace of the needs and to steer the SMEs in the right direction,” he said.

The Brunei Times

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