In a press statement issued
yesterday, iCentre, the contest’s organiser, said judges awarded the
joint grand prize to Mimit-E-Technology for its Go Halal project and
Freedomsoft for its E-Commerce Directory project.

Both walked
away with $15,000 each.

Mimit E-Technology also won the Special
Merit Award for ICT-based Islamic application with an additional cash
prize of $5,000.

Hj Rushdi El-Hakim Dato Hj Ibrahim, managing
director of Mimit E-Technology, said “We were actually shocked when we
were called to win the grand prize. We were targeting to win the Islamic
category then when we got the call it just made things so worth it that
our effort has been paid off, the sleepless nights we had and so on.”

Abdul
Hadi Embran, the company’s marketing director, said, “We do not mind
sharing the prize, and we feel that it is good to know that we have
youth who are now developing applications as Brunei has limited ICT
human resources.”

King Seh Horng, of Freedomsoft, on their
E-Commerce Directory Site project, said “This programme is to help us
encourage people to be involved in e-commerce. We tried to combine it
into a platform and the programme is just like a directory where people
can browse and search for products by several merchants, like an online
store.”

His partner, King Seh Haur, said, “It is not exactly
like eBay but there will be more features than eBay forums and stuff
people can discuss.”

Both said they will be investing most of
the money from their winnings into developing the programme.

The
award ceremony was attended by Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Dewa Major General
(Ret) Dato Seri Pahlawan Hj Mohammad Hj Daud, the minister of energy.
“Today, we are already witnessing our younger generations endowed with
vitality, creativity and dynamism, that if optimally exploited, could
contribute significantly to national achievement,” said the minister. He
added that the role of the youth today in shaping today’s “society and
business environment is becoming increasingly evident, giving them
unprecedented opportunities to take charge of their learning processes
and seek to adapt, adopt and leverage different possibilities to harness
their own skills”.

Crescent Sdn Bhd, helmed by Hjh Salma Hj
Abdul Latif, won the third prize and $5,000 for a business plan on an
educational programme which would allow individuals to get their
Master’s degree in Islamic Banking and Finance.

“The aim of
doing this was to get a global reach and I can get that through the
Internet. The reason was to ensure that the right Islamic knowledge is
passed into the market system because now, a lot of banks have curved
and bent certain syariah rules to get their products out in the market,”
she said. She added that her winnings will go into her capital for her
business, and that she went into the competition also to bring publicity
to her product and to let the public know that such a product will be
available soon.

Dato Paduka Timothy Ong, acting chairman of the
Brunei Economic Development Board, said, “I am very encouraged by this
year’s ThinkBig competition. The number of participants have gone up
from 39 to 50 and I am very encouraged by the participation in the
students category.”

He added, “I hope that after this competition
they will have less problems, but only the future will give us the
answer. Each success brings new challenges and it is a journey. I’m very
pleased (the winners) have got to this point and I wish them the very
best in the next stage,” he said.

“I’m a great believer in young
people, and I believe that the young people have much greater potential
than we sometimes give them credit for,” said Dato Paduka Ong. He said
that what was needed for the youth was “encouragement and the
environment to encourage them to excel”.

Dr Lily Chan, the chief
executive officer of NUS Enterprise, and Edmund Yong, managing partner
to Accel-X, and ICT venture capitalist, both addressed the audience at
the event as well.The Brunei Times