James Kon
Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office and Minister of Finance and Economy II Dato Seri Setia Dr Awang Haji Mohd Amin Liew bin Abdullah yesterday highlighted the need to continue moulding quality leaders who are better equipped to confront the challenges and uncertainties.
He stressed this during the launching of the Ministry of Finance and Economy (MoFE) Leadership Executive Program (MoFE-LEP), which was attended by 30 participants comprising senior officers from the MoFE, other ministries and key stakeholders.
The programme is organised in collaboration with Temasek Foundation (TF) and Civil Service College (CSC), Singapore.
The minister discussed Brunei Vision 2035 challenges that need to be overcome.
“As we have seen over the last couple of years or so, the whole world was deeply affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Global supply chains were disrupted, economic activities were constrained and movement of people across borders were restricted. As we slowly recover, we are now faced with yet another crisis – global inflation, particularly food inflation,” he said.
“In times like these, we need strong leaders who are tactful and strategic in taking measures to deal with issues as they arise. There is no doubt that COVID-19 will not be the last pandemic we face, global inflation will not be the last challenge we confront… There will be more challenges ahead, possibly even more devastating,” Dato Seri Setia Dr Awang Haji Mohd Amin Liew said.
“Leadership development will therefore never stop. We need to have leaders who continue to show resilience, adaptability and flexibility. We will therefore continue to develop and upgrade our leadership quality to better equip ourselves to confront the new challenges and uncertainties ahead of us.”
Dato Seri Setia Dr Awang Haji Mohd Amin Liew also recalled His Royal Highness Prince Haji Al-Muhtadee Billah ibni His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah, the Crown Prince and Senior Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office’s recent visit to Singapore for the 8th Singapore-Brunei Young Leaders’ programme (YLP).
“The visit resulted in a number of positive outcomes through a series of information sharing sessions that emphasised on three main areas, namely, education, civil service and defence. Among others, the idea is to offer scholarships to top students from Brunei Darussalam to pursue their studies at secondary to higher level education in Singapore, for civil servants from Brunei Darussalam to be placed in government agencies in Singapore, to continue knowledge sharing on technological development, and to strengthen maritime as well as regional security,” Dato Seri Setia Dr Awang Haji Mohd Amin Liew said.
Various ministries, the MoFE included, are excited about the outcome of the visit, and will lend full support in delivering them.
“Over the years, we have seen how cooperation and collaboration with Singapore has helped strengthen our civil service. For MoFE, our officials have leveraged on this mutual partnership by participating in various training programmes – including those on leadership. These training programmes have served us well,” he added.
Meanwhile, Assistant Chief Executive (International) at CSC Singapore Roger Tan also delivered welcoming remarks during the launch.
MOFE-LEP sees collaboration between the Human Capital Development Unit and Corporate Affairs Division of the MoFE with TF and CSC, Singapore. It aims primarily to build holistic leadership competencies for senior officers at the MoFE, other ministries and key stakeholders by adapting action learning especially for strategic planning and implementation.
The programme will be conducted over several months, featuring workshops regarding strategic planning related to civil service as well as study tours to Singapore. The speakers and the facilitators are from CSC and TF, Singapore.
In the afternoon, Deputy Secretary (Planning) at the Ministry of Finance of Singapore Yee Ping Yi delivered an executive symposium on leadership and public service transformation.
