Human capital critical to growth

Human capital critical to growth


Ryokichi Hirono: Human capital is important. Picture: Husin Ismail

Saturday, March 17, 2007


BRUNEI must further invest in human capital and exploit ideas including those put forward by young people, an Economics professor from Japan said yesterday.

Speaking to The Brunei Times, Ryokichi Hirono, professor emeritus in Economics of Seikei University, said, "If young people have good ideas, this can be exploited. Government must take up the leadership, exploit these ideas."

He cited as an example Japan which has invested a lot of money in human capital, and this has led to its rise as one of the most advanced countries.

People in Japan have developed all kinds of industries said Hirono, who was one of the speakers at the recent forum on Perspectives on Implementation Strategies for National Development Policies organised by the Centre for Strategic and Policy Studies.

Investments in human capital is important, he said, noting that an educated workforce is critical to surviving the global competition.

At the moment, the country is rich with natural resources, and the country is "being run okay", but Bruneians must prepare themselves for sustained economic growth and this is achieved through effective policies.

In a government, there are many types of policies which can lead to development of sectors which range from tourism to agriculture.

However, in some cases "policies are made but not implemented. They are easy to make but harder to implement. Countries in Southeast Asia have beautiful policies but they are not implemented," said the Japanese professor.

The Brunei Times