School level winners compete Dragon’s Den Style for National BUBA Award

On Tuesday 11 February 2014, the school level winners of the BUBA Awards presented their business plan ideas at the British High Commission today in front of a panel of four judges in a Dragons’ Den style session. The theme for the 2013/2014 BUBA Awards is ‘Entrepreneurship.’ Seven sixth form schools took part in the 2014 BUBA Awards Competition, namely, Maktab Duli Pengiran Muda Al-Muhtadee Billah, Maktab Sains Paduka Seri Begawan Sultan, Pusat Tingkatkan Enam Meragang, Pusat Tingkatan Enam Katok, Pusat Tingkatan Enam Tutong, Sekolah Menengah Sayyidina Ali and Jerudong International School.

The Dragons’ Den judging panel consisted of Deputy British High Commissioner Sunny Ahmed, BUBA Chairman Lee Wildman, iCentre advisor Stuart Kemp and BEDB representative Daniel Leong. The students who presented their business plans to the ‘Dragons’ were all first place winners at their individual schools. (Please see ‘Note to editor/s’ for the name of the business plans of school level winners).

Deputy High Commissioner Sunny Ahmed said “I was impressed with the confidence of the young people presenting this morning. We have a range of plausible business concepts which we hope the students will pursue. It is clear that the next generation does indeed possess the creativity and innovation required to help Brunei diversify its economy.”

Stuart Kemp was also very impressed with the quality of presentations of business ideas generated in the BUBA Awards. He said “Each of the finalists is a credit to their colleges, their parents and to themselves. I look forward to seeing some of their ideas become business in the future.”

The 2012/13 BUBA Awards, which were based around research on the theme of ‘Knowledge Economy and Brunei’, were considered a great success, receiving numerous entries across the seven participating schools, culminating in a ceremony in February 2013 where Sachin Murugan of International School Brunei was crowned the winner of the inaugural BUBA Awards.

Following the success of the 2012 awards the BUBA membership discussed themes for 2013 during the board meeting in February 2013. We wanted to change the focus of the awards in 2013 from being a research led piece of work to something which allows the students to take forward their own ideas and inspiration. Given that entrepreneurship is part of the Brunei 2035 vision, and often plays a part in UK universities degree programmes and career development initiatives these days, we thought that this would be the perfect platform from which students have the freedom to develop their own ideas and increase their independent thinking and learning.

The national winner/s of the 2013/2014 BUBA Awards Competition will be announced at a prize presentation event taking place on Wednesday 12 February, in the evening at Indera Samudra Grand Hall 4 at the Empire Hotel and Country Club.