29 April 2009. The Empire Hotel and Country Club.

SPEECH BY

YANG BERHORMAT PEHIN ORANG KAYA SERI DEWA MAJOR GENERAL (R) DATO SERI PAHLAWAN AWANG HAJI MOHAMMAD BIN HAJI DAUD

MINISTER OF ENERGY AT THE
PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE

DURING VENDOR FORUM 2009

29 APRIL 2009

THE EMPIRE HOTEL AND COUNTRY CLUB

BRUNEI DARUSSALAM

Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim

Assalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh and Good Morning.

Dr Grahaeme Henderson - Managing Director of Brunei Shell Petroleum (BSP),

His Excellency, Mr John Saville, British High Commissioner

Yang Mulia Awang Haji Murni bin Muhammad – Permanent Secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office;

Yang Mulia Awang Haji Bahrin bin Abdullah – Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Finance;
Yang Mulia Awang Haji Ismail bin Pehin Orang Kaya Pekerma Setia Dato Paduka Haji Hashim - Deputy Permanent Secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office;

Yang Mulia Awang Haji Salleh Bostaman bin Haji Zainal Abidin – Managing Director, BLNG;

Yang Mulia Awang Haji Said bin Ahmad – Managing Director, BSM.

and Senior Government Officers.

Distinguished Guests, Participants, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Firstly, I would like to thank you for inviting me to address this Forum. I am also very pleased to welcome local and international vendors to this important Forum.

I am delighted to see so many of you present this morning. I have been informed that some 400 companies and 700 participants have actually registered for today’s event. I also value your presence this morning despite your hectic schedule. This is an impressive turn-out and is a testimony of the Forum’s increasing importance as a broad-based business gathering not only for present vendors of Brunei Shell companies but also for future companies and aspiring entrepreneurs in the oil and gas industry.

While the Government is continuously and actively seeking means to diversify our country’s economic base, we foresee that oil and gas industry will remain the backbone of Brunei’s economy for many years to come. Currently oil and gas account for 90 percent of the Nation’s exports and 50 percent of its GDP.

Brunei Shell Joint Venture Companies have shown a strong performance in 2008, building on sustained improvements in the past 3 years particularly in the areas of safety, environment, oil and gas production, which I understand have all been gained through the systematic business improvement activities.

In addition, costs have been carefully managed throughout the period. As pointed out by Grahaeme, this good news also places a huge responsibility on business to exercise restraint on non-essential spending, and take steps to push down costs, while delivering high quality, value-added services.

At the present difficult time with declining oil prices and global economic slowdown, I urge all local contractors to initiate steps to be more prudent and implement more efficiencies in conducting their business. Furthermore, they need to drive towards continuous improvements and integrate it into their business model along the line of BSP’s approach which was leveraged on continuous improvements to deliver outstanding achievements.

I wish to pay special compliments to Brunei Shell companies for their deep commitments to local business development. The local business development programme is recognised as the best in class and is anchored in a long term, pro-Bruneian business strategy focused on providing ample opportunities and promoting capability-building among Bruneian companies. I also wish to commend BSP for bringing improvements to the Open Tender process which now enable Bruneian company meeting basic criteria to become a vendor through a fast-tracked registration process.

I am pleased to see the coaching scheme Brunei Shell Petroleum has launched to help strengthen capability among selected Bruneian contractors, particularly SMEs. This is a very timely initiative as it complements Government’s efforts to enhance local business capability, and especially that of SMEs.

Investment in training and capability building, along with targeted efforts to manage costs and improve efficiencies, will enable companies to weather the worst effects of the economic downturn. Further, it will help them to reposition themselves and seize new business opportunities that will surely arise with the eventual recovery.

Distinguished Guests, participants, Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Brunei Government is committed to efforts to skill up Bruneians working in the oil and gas industry. Contractors should continue to drive forward the initiative introduced by BSP to up-skill their employees in technical and trade fields such as welding, scaffolding and fabrication works.

As in previous years, the Vendor Forum provides an excellent opportunity for vendors of Brunei Shell companies to gain more in-depth knowledge and understanding of the companies’ business registration policy and processes. This Forum is also a valuable networking platform for coming together and to learn from each other how they can further refresh their business approach in order to drive cost effectiveness, improve services and efficiencies. The presence of international contractors of Brunei Shell companies and Trade Commissions from the United Kingdom and Canada also help to broaden this scope.

With this I wish everyone a productive and successful Vendor Forum 2009.

WABILLAHI TAUFIK WALHIDAYAH
WASSALAMU’ALAIKUM WARAHMATULLAHI WABARAKAATUH

Thank you.