BAG Networks - News - BAG in the Community

PRIVATE companies in the sultanate need to overcome their doubts over the capabilities of Bruneians to perform well in their jobs, said business executives who noted the need for employers to begin considering hiring more locals.

Norizah Harun-Taylor, general manager of Smart-Thinking Administrative Resource Services said she believes that locals need to be challenged and given priority for jobs.

"In my opinion, some private companies here don't have confidence in Bruneians. Perhaps, they are afraid of challenges. They should give priority to locals,'' said Norizah.

Elyas Azri, a general manager for a company that specialises in job-matching services, said that more placement opportunities need to be given to locals in the private sector.

"We support the government's vision to eradicate unemployment in the country. Locals have those required qualities too, except some of those who are lacking in experience and skill, and this can be further improved on. There needs to be more placement opportunities in various places in the private sector,'' said the general manager of Job Solutions. The company's database contains more than 300 school leavers, degree holders, higher national diploma holders as well as a number of employers waiting to recruit people.

Minister of Home Affairs Pehin Orang Kaya Johan Pahlawan Dato Seri Setia Adanan BPSK Dato Seri Setia Md Yusof highlighted during the Labour Department's Career Seminar and Exhibition last week that 6,644 jobseekers have registered with the department.

He expressed concern that more than a third of this number have a minimum qualification of Form Five, and another third have only reached Form One or Two. At present, there are roughly 98,000 foreign workers in Brunei out of a population of 380,000.

Norizah said she believes that foreign assistance can aid in improving the skills and knowledge of the locals.

"Lead and guide the locals and then perhaps one day the Bruneians can do it themselves ... 99.9per cent of our employees are Bruneians, but we do get the expertise and know-how from foreigners,'' she said.

"Everybody has his own ability. It is all about guiding, training and motivating them _ monitoring performance, correcting mistakes and explaining to them why and how,'' said Norizah, the only foreigner in the company she manages.

"Our chairman and director, Rahimi Perdi was only 29 when he decided to set up his own business _ which kicked off as a one-man show. Now he is 33, has 22 full-time staff and 40 support staff working under him _ all Bruneians _ and not forgetting that he now has another three subsidiary companies, all under one wing. This is just another example of how Bruneians can do it,'' she said.

Suhaila Kabri, a BAG Networks human resource analyst, said: ``We need to provide the locals with more opportunities to gain more skills and training. With us, it is a priority to give jobs to locals so that they can gain knowledge and be trained to prove themselves in the Brunei IT field.''