Likewise, Brunei was urged to develop its ICT service sector to be globally competitive rather than expanding ICT manufacturing as an industry due to the country's small size and limited manpower. The issue was raised during the final day of the International Conference on e-Government and Administrative Simplification, when the participants discussed ICT as the new engine of growth for the next generation.
Ministry of Home Affairs Senior Special Duties Officer Pg Hj Abd Rahman PSI Pg Hj Ismail asked a panel of invited speakers about the feasibility of developing Brunei's ICT industry with respect to economic diversification and their recommendations that Brunei should take.
Dr Sung Gul Hong, professor of public administration from Korea's Kookmin University said that as a small country that wants to adopt ICT development, Brunei should target specific sectors in ICI', noting that the Sultanate's public sector was larger than the private sector.
"In that sense, I think that if you are going to emphasise ICT industry, then you have to focus on the service sector," he said. Dr Hong explained that due to the size of Brunei's economy, the country should not really delve into the ICT manufacturing sector.
However, since the country had a relatively larger than average public sector and it was venturing towards e-governance, he pointed out that the country could develop and provide public sector solutions for e-government and other service sectors.
I think you could find a niche market in Southeast Asia, and you can export systems, solutions, after services, and what have you, in terms of ICT industries," he said. In this respect, he said Brunei's development of e-government was quite the "strategic choice". "When you develop e-government services and systems, then you have to always consider the potential impact of developing e-governance upon the local ICT service industries."
An adjunct professor in local governance from Finland's University of Tampere agreed with Dr Hong. "ICT is always a part of the transformation to e-government, so in that sense, ICT will be an important element in any society," said AriVeikko Anttiroiko.
I have the feeling that the service sector, for a country like Brunei, might be more better strategically, but even in the service sector, ICT is becoming an integral part of services as well," added the Finnish professor. Dr Hong noted that given Brunei's strong Islamic background, it could explore further into this particular aspect in ICT services. A senior researcher from Indonesia's National Institute of Public Administration shared his thoughts during a brief interview following the panel discussion.
I believe if you have a strong vision and be persistent, then I think it's not impossible that in the future, you will take the lead in developing ICT for Islamic countries," Dr Anwar Sanusi told The Brunei Times. He elaborated by saying that Brunei had three main advantages, namely large capital, political stability and access to low cost labour from neighbours such as Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and possibly from Vietnam.
Sanusi said that ICT has been advanced by the likes of China, South Korea and Japan but not so much in the field of Islamic services. With about two billion Muslims around the world, he stressed the potential of the market to be tapped. To back his point, he recalled that during the global economic crisis, people were turning to the Islamic financial system as an alternative to overcoming the crisis. "If Brunei can develop maybe like an 'Islamic ICT', then in the future you can be the leading country in developing (this)," he said.
Ooh Koon Tian of National University of Singapore said Singapore had faced a similar situation as "a small city-state with limited resources". "During the initial years of (Singapore's) ICT development, the focus was more on using ICT as an enabler rather than building an ICT industry to earn (more) GDP," Doh said. He noted that during the early years, ICT was used "to make our economy more efficient". Singapore carried out a lot of ICT logistic projects, since Singapore is a logistics hub.
As they progressed and carried out more projects, Ooh said that local ICT companies gained more and more expertise, which they then export to other countries. "So this was a natural process," he said. "We did not get into focusing on exporting our ICT capabilities right from the start because we were not able to do it in the beginning."
"For Brunei, you need to find something that is relevant to your own local economy," he added. "My advice would be to first focus on using ICT to make your economy more efficient and then throughout all these projects, the market forces will come into play and then your local companies will find its own niche."
The conference ended yesterday after three days of sharing experiences, best practices and expertise on matters relating to e-governance.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Ubaidillah Mash
Quelle/Source: Bru Direct, 14.05.2010
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