| Danial Norjidi |

DETAILS of Unified National Networks Sdn Bhd (UNN) were shared during the afternoon session of the second day of the 15th Legislative Council (LegCo) meeting yesterday.

Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office and Minister of Finance and Economy II Yang Berhormat Dato Seri Setia Dr Awang Haji Mohd Amin Liew bin Abdullah touched on the UNN while speaking on the first of the four main focusses for government spending in the 2019/2020 financial year during the session.

He highlighted that the information and communications technology (ICT) sector has embarked on a transformation to accelerate the country’s digital economy agenda with an initiative that unites Datastream Technology Sdn Bhd (DST), Telekom Brunei Berhad (TelBru), Progresif Cellular Sdn Bhd (PCSB) and Brunei International Gateway Sdn Bhd (BIG) into another subsidiary of Darussalam Assets Sdn Bhd, namely UNN.

“The result of this initiative is that it enables the three telecommunications companies to have the same access to the UNN network, and will put the focus on the retail section by offering competitive fixed and mobile services to customers,” the minister said.

“This will reduce the prices of fixed and mobile services while increasing the coverage and quality of these services.”

He pointed out that the development of the ICT sector is crucial in transforming the digital economy ecosystem of Brunei Darussalam to achieve the goals of Brunei Vision 2035.

“The main objective of UNN is to invest and improve telecommunications infrastructure and set up a state-of-the-art and best-in-class fixed-mobile convergent network,” said the minister.

“This important initiative will bring Brunei into the Smart Nation status, bringing the possibility of generating new industries such as e-medicine, e-transportation, e-education and Internet of Things (IoT),” he continued. “This will also enable MSMEs to gain access to telecommunications infrastructure to provide services such as home security, door-to-door delivery, e-commerce and so on.”

Yang Berhormat Dato Seri Setia Dr Awang Haji Mohd Amin Liew shared that apart from the integration of telecommunications infrastructure, UNN will also combine a variety of data centres with Tier 3 specification that are stable and secure, and can handle cybersecurity threats.

“This will ensure data centre and cloud services to local and international customers complemented by a comprehensive telecommunications network, providing efficient, reliable and cost-effective services,” he said.

“This is a platform to facilitate the government’s initiative to set up a centralised data centre in the future. The role of UNN is also to provide training and capacity-building to ensure that locals fill all jobs at all levels in the UNN.”

Yang Berhormat Dato Seri Setia Dr Awang Haji Mohd Amin Liew added that this new initiative is expected to continue to build the foundation for diversifying the economy and generating meaningful employment opportunities in the ICT sector.