63 / 252
61
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Brunei Darussalam aims to improve the ease
of doing business in the country, and has
established a national body dedicated to
support Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
(MSMEs) from start-up to growth.
In 2016, His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal
Bolkiah Mu’izzaddinWaddaulah ibni Al-Marhum
Sultan Haji Omar ‘Ali Saifuddien Sa’adul Khairi
Waddien, Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei
Darussalam consented to the establishment
of Darussalam Enterprise (DARe) to develop
MSMEs into drivers of economic growth.
The development of MSMEs is essential
to the national development vision, Brunei
Vision 2035, which aspires for a dynamic and
sustainable economy with a per capita GDP that
ranks among the top 10 in the world.
“MSMEs are the way forward for our nation to
grow not just in terms of our GDP, but MSMEs
are the ones that will diversify our economy
from oil and gas. MSMEs are also the ones that
will provide employment opportunities for our
local talent and fresh graduates,” said DARe
CEO Javed Ahmed.
He added that DARe works closely with
government and non-government agencies to
encourage the growth of business enterprises
and increase GDP contribution.
DARe runs three training programmes for
MSMEs, beginning with the Industry Business
Academy (IBA), which covers core business
skills from financial management to marketing
through modules taught in classes, which have
been participated by 3,400 business owners and
employees.
To provide training, mentorship and access
to investors in challenging markets, DARe
runs two business boot camps throughout the
year: Startup Bootcamp and a series of Micro
Business Bootcamp (MBB). The programmes
train youth who seek to start their own
businesses.
“We are constantly looking to develop and
improve our programmes and initiatives,
whether it’s by providing capacity building
programmes, industrial land and complexes,
marketing and promotion, or financing and
growth outside of Brunei,” said Javed.
In 2016, 46 companies generated BND584,000
in investments and created jobs for 260
Bruneians. The following year, in the first cycle
of the Startup Bootcamp, 13 local start-ups
collectively raised BND300,000 in investment,
generated BND80,000 in revenue, and
employed 131 people.
The year 2018 saw Singapore-based Golden
Equator Consulting partnering with DARe for
local businesses to run the latest cycle of its
Startup Bootcamp. Designed as an intensive
100-day programme for start-ups with
ambitions of scaling beyond Brunei, Startup
Bootcamp’s first two cycles saw 46 companies
raise over BND580,000 in investment and
creating close to 400 jobs.
The Micro Business Bootcamp, which targets
small enterprises with less than four employees,
DARe CEO Javed Ahmed
ran its first cycle last year, taking 32 businesses
from ideation to execution.
The DARe CEO said both bootcamps – as well
as IBA which offers standalone classes and
workshops on core business concepts – were
open to businesses in all industries.
“What we want to bring in and develop is
variety. Just opening the programmes to
technology enterprises would have been too
restrictive,” said Javed. “What we want to
see is an integration and mixing of different
industries to produce innovation.”
To spark growth amongst MSMEs, DARe
introduced “co-matching” grants of up to
BND20,000 in the third quarter of 2018 for local
businesses. The grants require MSMEs to put
forward 30 per cent of each of their total project