1- the mindset of the locals

2- the highly qualified locals that struggle to find work

3- business using the escape route of opening easy business, cafes, food places and shoes ect

4- no one is taking the risk of creating long term plans that help the economy

5- big business such as shell are cutting back 30%, its the target- this impacts the others who feed of them for work.

6- the prices for things are going up, but the wages are not

7- public services are not even a thing sadly, they did do up the parks tho around the country and there nice now and accessible.

8- lots of companies look for cheap labour abroad, so dont use locals.

9- everything is done on a cheap, but charges are high

10- not all but alot of workers dont put 100% into there job, so you get a half assed service, some are more glued to the phone then the shop or their job- cant blame some tho if no one enters the shop for hours what do u do.

11- many locals dont understand that if there is no work there is no job, so they get let go.

12- the gov dont understand that if you cut back on key things, it impacts the people, also without any real solid plan there will be a gulp moment soon when there is nothing to fall back on after the oil and gas boom.

24/7 gas station and convenience store.

ride hailing services. we already know brunei cannot do without cars. while we wait for the govt to try & sort the public transport issue out, i hope some rich taukeh here in Brunei can set up a reliable ride hailing service or for the existing DART to iron out their glitchy app & gather all drivers under 1 platform so it is properly regulated & tracked. there are good drivers in Brunei who provide these services independently but the problem is people only know about them via word of mouth or if you search on fb or ig. and being independent means that people will still hesitate before using your services because there is no consumer protection (unlike those provided by Grab for eg)

it is a somewhat necessary & useful sector to support because it provides quick & straightforward employment for those who wants to do this either full time or part time. it helps to reduce traffic on roads. it can give tourist a minor incentive to come visit because they do not have to worry about moving around. it can help the local to save money too knowing that they dont necessarily need to own a car.

Lack of passion. Just want money. Still stuck in medieval times

Lacking of everything

- Expensive

- Outdated product line

- Bad service from staffs

- Lack of knowledge when asked

- Staff doesnt even know if your company carry that particular products

- No/less training on staff

just to name a few. no one like to drive hours and que for another hours to Miri/Limbang/KK just to shop. Unfortunately, they offered better products. cheaper, better service etc

Personally, I would say Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) for complicated or complex solutions are lacking, which often leads to employing foreigners in those areas. This would be acceptable if they actively contribute to developing local talent. However, many local talents tend to outgrow these roles, possibly due to stagnation, boredom, loss of motivation, or issues within the company, eventually deciding to pursue other opportunities.

Probably a technician for me, especially one who can fix large machines. I struggle to find that kind of expertise in Brunei, and I had to bring someone from Malaysia just to get my machine running. Of course, Brunei has technicians, but they’re not as skilled as you’d expect, especially when it comes to handling bigger machines

Business owner here producing locally manufactured packaged food products.

Packaging services are difficult to source in Brunei. They are either not available or too expensive (compared to Malaysia even more compared to China prices). Printing of customized plastic/aluminum packages are limited (if I’m not mistaken there are none, but I think one company is starting to do so. But their prices are too high). So we resort to manufacturing and ordering from China. Even with shipping costs, the total cost is still significantly cheaper.

Same with printing of plastic/paper bags. Gotten quotes from the usual companies in Brunei, prices are much higher than getting them from China.

Understandable though. It’s difficult to compete against China who basically service the world. Don’t expect to have these kind of prices in Brunei.

I feel that the only way for Brunei to open interesting business models, is to only have 2-5 similar businesses in the same field(to promote healthy competition and drive innovation) because once it gets saturated, the cash flow and renevue gets lowered then the companies become stagnant just trying to pay rent and staff.

This is due to the nature of a small population in Brunei.

I see lots of posts about skillful technicians etc. Do we have a programme and trainer to train? Long time ago expats were brought to train the lokal work force. What happened? lokals don't want to learn or they learn abit but want to climb faster but when already reach the peak they don't know what to do or manage, cutting costs at areas which makes no sense like something which may improve the business they rather not get it. Opportunity to keep some expats were there, because not many know the risk expats take to come here and teach-when they go back they may not have a job at all and need to look again. With so much budget cuts, i assume reduction of expats soon.