Sultanate needs more engineers
Monday, 08 February 2010 08:54
"The economic development of Brunei requires a special contribution from engineers and the future generation of engineers. Brunei cannot rely on natural resources for sustainable development alone, and that we need to make that journey from being just a natural resource-rich country to being a natural resource rich country plus a knowledge-based economy."
This was stressed by Dato Paduka Timothy Ong, the Acting Chairman of the Brunei Economic Development Board (BEDB) in his keynote address during the Engineers' Night annual dinner hosted by The Professional Engineers and Quantity Surveyors (Puja) at Orchid Garden Hotel's Caesar Grand Hall last night.Dato Ong addressed the audience on "Brunei Economy - Looking Back, Looking Forward," where he stressed the need of educated, trained and skillful engineers in order to confront the economic challenges of the future.
"In order to succeed in our economic development, we need to overcome a number of challenges. Besides the need of improving the ease of doing business in Brunei and our need to adapt to change, we must also make sure that our young people are educated in a way that prepares them for their jobs of the future," he said.
"Asian countries such as Japan, Singapore and Korea have no natural resources but they possess that most precious resources; trained, educated and skillful human resources, especially qualified engineers," added the BEDB acting chairman.
"In particular, we must ensure that the brightest of our young men and women continue to be interested in studying engineering and science, because we cannot develop an economy without adequate engineers. All of the industries and the infrastructure of the future that are required to support these industries require engineers," said Dato Ong.
"There are at the moment 4,200 people working in BSP and BLNG. Eighty-five per cent of them are highly qualified engineers. There are 170 people working in the Brunei Methanol Company ready to start exporting methanol to the world. Of those 170, over hundred are engineers and technical people," added the BEDB acting chairman who is also a member of the board of the Sungai Liang Authority.
He further stressed that there is a declining interest in the study of engineering in Brunei. "In Brunei, there are only 10per cent of our students in tertiary education studying engineering, in comparison to countries such as Bahrain with 17 per cent, Qatar with 19 per cent and Malaysia 40 per cent, and possibly much higher in Singapore."
"In order to continue to attract the best of our young people into engineering, we have to ensure that there are sufficiently attractive opportunities in engineering."
He gave an example of how engineers in general do much better in Singapore, where 30 per cent of the top CEO's have engineering backgrounds, and with half of the businesses are engineers by trading.
"Engineering is a demanding intellectual discipline. That's why I believe that, in general, engineers are more clever in economy, and engineering is probably the best discipline in problem solving," Dato Ong added.
"And so in order to respond to this challenge, we need to see how we can continue to attract our best and brightest to be interested in engineering and that leads to include the employment opportunities of engineers and proper recognition for engineers," he concluded.
Organised by the Puja's Engineering Division, the annual dinner was aimed at encouraging and enhancing networking among engineers in Puja in particular and among the major stakeholders and professionals in the construction industry.
Gracing the event as the guest of honour was Minister of Development Pehin Orang Kaya Hamzah Pahlawan Dato Seri Setia Hj Abdullah Begawan Mudim Dato Paduka Hj Bakar. Other invited guests include the Deputy Minister of Development Dato Paduka Dr Hj Mat Suny Hj Mohd Hussein, the Ministry's Deputy Permanent Secretary and Chairman of Puja (B) Engineering Division Hj Mohd Zin Hj Salleh, senior government officials from technical ministries; and Puja's council members, senior engineering members, prominent engineering consultants, and committee members of Surveyor and Architect divisions.
Established in 1982, and approved by the Registrar of Societies on January 31, 1984, Puja was originally set up with the aim of providing a platform for professional interactions among its members.
The Brunei Times
