Priming the industrial pump

Priming the industrial pump


Helping build Brunei: The Butra Heidelberg (Brunei Cement) factory in Muara is one of many projects initiated by Hamidjojo Development. The business strategy and development firm aims to help build industries in Brunei Picture: BT/Zamri ZainalDebbie Too
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN



Saturday, August 23, 2008


HAMIDJOJO Development's founder and chief executive Rubyanto A Hamidjojo enjoys building a business, and more specifically developing an industry.

"(It) doesn't just develop projects, we develop industries and then sell (a business project) off to other companies to manage," says Hamidjojo project manager Joseph Sequeira who has been in the company for more than 15 years. To this day, Sequeira still feels the same rush and anticipation he had in the beginning.

Commitment is said to be one of the most important ingredients in a successful business. However, once a business has reached a certain level of success, it is hard to not fall into a routine trap which can make even the most exciting of tasks seem dull. The rush, excitement and anticipation that someone in business feels in the beginning soon starts to wear off and may even result in boredom. But not at Hamidjojo, says Sequeira.

"In the past 15 years being in the company, every new project we have done has always felt like something new because it's always something different."

The company has narrowed its niche down to being a business strategy and development company, which Sequeira explains is due to the nature of the business. It involves developing a company, running it for a couple of years, and once the project has reached its peak, it is sold off to other businessmen.

"Our first project was the first ... mineral water plant, which cost $5 million, and was built and developed in Lumut in 1985," says Sequeira. After a few years, the company was sold off and Hamidjojo started looking to develop another industry, cement.

"Our founder has experience from Indonesia, and he always sees the potential in developing industries in Brunei, so the next feasible project we developed was the cement plant, previously known as Butra Djajanti but sold off to a German company and now called Butra Heidelberg cement." The cement plant cost $90 million to build and was completed in 1993.

Since there are many industries to develop, Sequeira says that the company decides what projects to develop based on two points: Brunei's available resources and whether the products will have export potential.

"Other than the oil and gas industry, Brunei hardly has any industries in manufacturing, and since the (bigger) garment factories closed down, the other big player in manufacturing is the cement plant. Brunei has the potential to develop more industries with its available resources, so one of the projects we were in the midst of developing was a glass factory."

Sequeira says one of Brunei's natural resources is silica sand found in abundance along the main roads connecting the Tutong district to the Belait district. However, due to the lack of power available to support such a plant and other technical difficulties, Hamidjojo Development decided to put that project on hold. The company's current project involves the development of a thin film solar plant, which costs €30 million ($62.6 million).

"In this day and age, with oil prices going up and the limited amount of energy resources, people are looking towards renewable energy, and solar power is becoming more and more popular," he says.

While Hamidjojo seems to land multi-million projects one after another, Sequeira says it is not without its own set of challenges. Apart from the technical challenges that it faces when working on projects, on a whole the project manager says that decision making in Brunei is slow.

"Sometimes it gets frustrating, but we have to live with it and so we try our best to work around it.

"I have been with this company for a very long time and one of the best things is being able to do something new all the time. With new projects, we learn new things, we read books and magazines to learn more about our project and it's just like being back in school and studying."

The most important thing that has kept Sequeira loyal to the company is the job satisfaction from seeing a project flourish.

"Even though we have sold off our developments, there is always a satisfaction knowing that I was a part of building those factories. Every time I see a Butra Heidelberg cement bag, I think to myself that I helped build that plant. I am not a Bruneian, so eventually, I will have to go back to India, but knowing that I was part of developing certain industries and building the plants and factories is good to leave me happy," he says.

The Brunei Times