The ASEAN and East Asia Economic Research Institute (ERIA) webinar on Entrepreneurship, Startups, Innovation in ASEAN and East Asia for Post-Pandemic Recovery was held recently.
Adna Shatriremie bin Haji Abdul Rahman, Head of the Entrepreneurship Innovation Center (EIC) in the Ministry of Education (MoE), was one of the speakers.
The 90-minute webinar, organized by ERIA, is in line with the robust development of the digital economy across the ASEAN region, the growth of which has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speakers for the webinar titled “Futurecasting: Entrepreneurship – Startups – Innovation in ASEAN and East Asia – 2021 and Beyond” included UNESCAP Technology and Innovation Chief Jonathan Wong; Co-founder and CEO of Invest in Cambodia and founder of the ASEAN network Ravindra Ngo; President of ASEAN Business Youth Association, Singapore Veronica Low Kai Lin; and Managing Director of Knowledge Hive International, Malaysia Nur Kaser.
The session looked at the development and development of entrepreneurship and innovation in their respective ecosystems after the pandemic.
The webinar in session. PHOTO: MINISTRY OF EDUCATION
The session also focused on what has been set up in Brunei Darussalam to foster the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation within the education system, as well as the initiatives the MoE has taken or will begin to ensure that the ecosystem is suitable for Entrepreneurship and innovation will remain alive in the post-pandemic era.
Adna Shatriremie stated that when he led entrepreneurship at Brunei Darussalam University (UBD) in 2014, a test was conducted on the students of the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Arts to determine the level of their entrepreneurship awareness to determine. However, since the National Entrepreneurship Agenda (NEA) needs to be considered before entrepreneurship becomes the focus, trials and experiments were carried out first as a multidisciplinary approach increases the sustainability of startups and incubations.
As the MoE plans to promote entrepreneurship with functional knowledge of sustainability in relation to innovation, various efforts have been made at different levels of education.
At the primary level, awareness of entrepreneurship and innovation was raised.
Experiments on success and failure were conducted at the secondary level, while the college level was given the opportunity to try out their business ideas.
Students incubated under UBD have a multidisciplinary background and have so far survived three to four years after graduation.
Adna Shatriremi pointed out that promoting entrepreneurship is not just about creating entrepreneurs, it is also about promoting the entrepreneurial mindset. To do this, students must be able to make sense of what they are learning. The head of the EIC said the ministry was preparing simple basics so that students and future youngsters can feel, know and test what it’s like to be an entrepreneur and, most importantly, how to develop the entrepreneurial mindset.
The primary role of the EIC is to create an awareness of entrepreneurship and innovation in education that will support students on their career path in terms of sustainability and employability.
