The Almost 2 Hours Talk..

This morning i attended an almost 2 hours talk presented by the BIBD personnel.. There were four of them, all with position of either Manager or Assistant Manager.. How i wish i can that position, at least or better.. Ehehehe..

Am not sure about their names though but the main presenter was Hj Zainul, the Sales Manager of BIBD and the so-called second speaker was Pg Sanusi Iskandar Pg Hj Ismail of the Corporate Banking Division... Perhaps, Pengiran is the Manager of Corporate Department..

Well actually, it wasnt the first time for me to meet Pengiran.. Sometime, late last year, i did went to his office at the BIBD, Headquarters to make a corporate bank transfer for one of the DST Group subsidiaries.. Cant remmember whether it was for DST Payphone or DST Technical Services coz am affiliate with both subsidiaries..

Owh well, he did introduce himself at the end of the talk, that he was trained under the Semaun Holding sometime years ago.. And one of his "child" was the development of the Mahkota Crystal.. Wow!! What an accomplishment!!

Despite the fact that he only joined BIBD last 4 years but he is the one who responsibles for the government SME Scheme facilitate by BIBD under the MIPR..
Apart from that, obviously under the mentioned department, he also in charge of the corporate entities.. He takes care of looking after all those organisations accounts.. Thanks Pengiran..


During the short presentation, he also shared the problem of today's business plan..

I quote: "They are just too confident but not realistic.. They budgeted that the payback period will be just after 8 months of the business operation"

Further more he continued that: "any business organisations shouldnt be big but what important most is that not only to explore the market but also to penetrate the products for exports too.. If it cant be exported to the international market, then start with the regional market first"

Then i asked him a question with regards to SME Development in Brunei.. Its always the case that, the local has insufficient amount of capital to start up their business operations.. The start-up cost is simply high and to get bank to finance the whole expenses is somehow very difficult..

Most banks will only willing to give the fund to those businesses that have operated more than 3 years with good financial background i.e financial stability.. The same thing happened to the newly launch SME Scheme being offered by SCB..

So my question was, apart from the nature of the business does BIBD requires the same minimum of 3 years operation.. If so, it would be a big help for the new business starter..

But, in response to my question, Pengiran explained that: "the government help for these SME Development, the above mentioned situation is not the case.. The government do help the new starter too.. However, every business plain will then be reviewed by the BIBD, SUT of MIPR and some MIPR Departments.. The seven 'puak' are entitle to apply the fund scheme"

Owh i have talk long enough about all this talk and SME as a whole.. But i should thanks the BIBD for sharing such information.. I might continue this posting later or perhaps in the near future.. It is an interesting topic to be discussed..