James Kon & Adib Noor
In conjunction with the 29th Civil Service Day celebration, the Public Service Department (JPA) in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports as well as the Public Service Commission (SPA) yesterday hosted a charity recreation event at Taman Haji Sir Muda Omar ‘Ali Saifuddien.
The event was split into 10 kilometres (km) cycling event, men’s 2.5km walkathon and women’s 1.5km walkathon.
Around 1,000 participants turned up for the event, including Cabinet ministers, permanent secretaries, deputy permanent secretaries, heads of departments, and senior officers and staff from various ministries.
The event began at 6.15am, with participants preparing with a brief warming-up session.
Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office Pehin Datu Lailaraja Major General (Rtd) Dato Paduka Seri Haji Awang Halbi bin Haji Mohd Yussof as the Co-Chair of the Executive Committee of the 29th Civil Service Day celebration sounded off the cycling event while the men’s walkathon was sounded off by Minister of Health Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Mohd Isham bin Haji Jaafar. The women’s walkathon was officiated by spouse of Deputy Minister (Civil Service Governance) at the Prime Minister’s Office Datin Hajah Zubaidah binti Haji Mahmud.
The event also saw participants donating to the charity box for the National Welfare Body Fund.
Meanwhile, Politeknik Brunei (PB) also held a charity walkathon yesterday in commemoration of the institution’s 10th anniversary.
PB’s newly-appointed chairman, Deputy Minister of Finance and Economy (Fiscal) Pengiran Datin Seri Paduka Hajah Zety Sufina binti Pengiran Dato Paduka Haji Sani officiated the charity walkathon.
The charity walkathon saw around 500 participants, including the PB Board of Governors, officers from the Ministry of Education, the PB Acting Director, as well as PB students.
The event started at 7am with a brief warming-up session led by PB students and proceeded with the walkathon that circled the surrounding areas and ending at the Ong Sum Ping Campus.
Pengiran Datin Seri Paduka Hajah Zety Sufina also toured the Final Year Project Showcase from PB final-year students.
Vendors and booths prepared by PB students sold a variety of items, refreshments and food as part of their initiative to showcase their products and entrepreneurship skills.
One of the many products showcased was Tag Tech, a near-field-communication-technology (NFC)-based e-business card allowing users to share information with a tap of a phone to the card.
“We started in June developing the software to program the cards, and since then customers have responded well to our final products.
“A few companies have approached us to work with them to produce their own cards,” said Helmi Salleh of Tag Tech.
He added that the next project is to develop an e-menu.
The event concluded with the deputy minister officiating the lucky draw at the campus lobby.
