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ENTREPRENEURSHIP
He entered the DARe Startup Bootcamp Cycle
3 and was selected for the 10-day immersion
programme in Jakarta and Bandung, Indonesia
in 2018. The SoulKonekshen team met other
startups and worked on pitch decks and scripts
for the 1,000 Startup Demo Day. They attended
two Startup Pitching competitions, Techsauce
Global Summit from Bangkok, running its
Indonesia roadshow and IDEA Jam Finalist
Pitching Event.
In Bandung, the team set up a networking
session with people from one of the most
successful local franchises: Warunk Apnormal.
The franchise has 150 outlets since its first
branch in Bandung four years ago. Zul-Fadly
aspires to become a fast casual dining concept
franchise that sells premium high quality burgers
using organic ingredients catering to health
conscious consumers.
BenchLab
BenchLab founder Wan Nurul Naszeerah is a Yale
graduate who saw potential in young talented
Bruneians who have spare time on weekends.
BenchLab conducts workshops for participants
to discover their skills and potentially turn it into
a business.
The company joined DARe in February 2018.
On April 1, 2018, BenchLab launched its first
line of workshops featuring Bruneian talents as
instructors. Within five months of operations,
BenchLab has hosted more than 100 workshops,
empowering more than 60 skilled instructors
to gain experience and additional income, and
enabling more than 300 individuals from Brunei
and Malaysia to learn new skills.
The public’s response is overwhelming because
people want to discover their skills and
potentially turn into a business. “But it’s not
all about cash,” Naszeerah said. “BenchLab
is trying to help reduce unemployment in the
country, and thus creating a positive social
impact by helping youth to generate skills and
talents to be more employable.”
BenchLab hopes to instill a culture of fun,
learning and productivity on weekends for all in
Brunei.
Sinar Tours
Sinar Tours broke a record attracting 10,000
South Koreans to Brunei within 12 months. The
company is jointly owned by Hjh Normah Suria
Hayati PJDSMDSU Dr Haji Awang Jamil Al-Sufri
and James Park. They began the business by
focussing on South Korean tourists. Only 2,871
were recorded in Brunei in 2015.
Sinar introduced chartered flights with Royal
Brunei Airlines in December 2016, which ran for
12 months until the national carrier introduced
Incheon as part of their scheduled flights at
the end of 2017. According to statistics from
the Tourism Development Department, Brunei
received 3,551 tourists from South Korea in
2016, which swelled to 8,705 last year, arguably
driven by Sinar Tour’s packages.
Sinar has marketed Brunei through Korean travel
agents and marketing companies, who visited
Brunei and later developed advertisement
campaigns including television commercials.
Sinar’s three main packages to Korean tourists
were scheduled around their chartered flights
on Thursday and Sunday; offering three nights,
four nights and a week-long stay at the Empire
Hotel & Country Club, Parkview Hotel, Rizqun
International Hotel or Centrepoint Hotel.
Visitors had the option to tour all four districts. In
the capital, tourists visited mosques, Kampong
Ayer, the Brunei Arts and Handicraft Training
Centre, the Royal Regalia Museum and local
restaurants, while their day trip Temburong
involved rafting and the canopy walk at the Ulu
Temburong National Park. Visitors were also
given the option to visit the Eco Ponies Garden
in Tutong and oil monuments in Belait.