BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

A HIGH-TECH Chinese company specialising in computer-generated images and audio technology is looking to make Brunei its base for research and development.

Beijing Sesame World (BSW) is eyeing to establish its out-of-China research base in Brunei in collaboration with the Institut Teknologi Brunei (ITB) and the Brunei Economic Development Board (BEDB).

BSW Vice-President Zhang Jingjing said the company is setting up its R&D centre in Brunei because BEDB offered an attractive research incentive scheme and has committed to help them set up the research and development centre.

She said that there is a lot of work involved in establishing a research centre, and BEDB has shown enough sincerity which convinced their team in Beijing.

Zhang said most of the key founders of the company have a background of working with leading computer graphics firms in China.

Some of the projects include computer graphic projects done for the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and a hundred-meter animated display detailing ancient Chinese history at the Shanghai Expo.

BSW’s main market is in China, she said. What they are aiming to do is to take key parts of their research into Brunei to do, and to build a world-class computer graphic and sound system related research centre out of Brunei.

Zhang said that the company plans to develop the second and third generation of their audio-visual technology in Brunei before bringing the technology back into China to sell.

Soon Loo, the company’s partner in Brunei, said the key milestone regarding this research centre “is that within half a year, the research and development team will be assembled and ready to go”.

“A year after that, the first generation of research will be done, meaning that we will have products that we will be able to start selling to the market,” he said.

He said that the company will always be looking at the market, and ensuring that they will be able to adapt to it.

“What we are interested in is developing technology that can be commercialised, as opposed to pure academic R&D,” he said.

The company will likely be based in Anggerek Desa Technology Park, which is under the purview of the BEDB.

Soon said the company will bring researchers from China and Singapore and will also hire researchers and staff from Brunei.

Soon said they also plan to establish a research hub outside of Brunei. And together with researchers from Singapore, they will sell the technology to the Southeast Asian and Islamic markets.

The Brunei Times