Tremendous changes to the technological landscape, data processing and communication, had been rapid over the past few years and will continue to be so. Innovations abound and products and services have come onto the market in new forms frequently. Moreover, the availability and speed of access to information had helped to shaped thinking and changing lifestyles. The challenges facing us, as a nation is to manage these changes effectively, making technology works for us positively rather than let it undermine the social and cultural values that form the fabric of a prosperous and stable society.

Change is inevitable in any organic society. We need not fear change. What is important is not to lose sight of the fundamental values that binds us together. It is these fundamentals values that helps us to face the challenges of a new world order in which technology had played a key part in bringing this about.

As a nation, we need to identify the critical success factors and map the route to sustain economic growth. Brunei's population is growing, demographic changes are taking place and all these had a profound impact on the allocation of economic resources. Depleting natural resources will force us to refocus our priorities when formulating strategies for survival.

This year's theme for BITEX® is seeking excellence as a way forward. Being contented is simply not enough anymore when we have to compete internationally for a piece of the cake, so to speak. Globally, there is this push for free trade and the highly skilled but lower cost producers have a distinct advantage over us. We need to be among the best. This requires a change of mindset at all levels, to always aspire for excellence because at the end of the day it is the quality of the human resource that gives us the competitive edge.

Capacity building in human resources takes center stage as one of the key areas required for sustainable economic growth; one of the critical success factors and this was reflected in the 8th National Development Plan where a sizeable amount been allocated for human resource development. We must participate fully, put our backs to it, be innovative and pull out all the stops to ensure that the national goals are achieve. This mean that we must not be complacent, instead we need to be proactive and meet the challenges head on, whether as individuals or collectively as organizations.

More importantly, we must do this effectively, not waste. Our concerted effort must be conscientious. We need to identify the priority areas, where the allocations of resources are required most and the best way of utilising the resources so as to achieve the maximum yield. There must be accountability too so that at the end of the day we can keep track of our scorecard.

PKBD had, over the past year, initiated two projects as part of the national drive for excellence. This is the Asia Pacific Information and Communication Technology Awards and the PKBD Bursary Awards for the best computer studies' students for secondary schools. This is our humble contribution to the nation and we look forward to the continued support of all those involved, without whom our initiatives would not have succeeded.