​With reference to the Ministry of Home Affair’s Press Release on 6 April 2020 regarding the cancellation of the Ramadhan Bazaar under the purview of the Municipal Departments, District Departments and Department of Culture and Sports as one of the precautionary measures to help contain the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country, so as to safeguard the safety and well-being of the public. 

In relation to this, since the sustainability of Brunei Darussalam’s industries [such as Food and Beverage (F&B)] falls under the Ministry of Finance and Economy’s (MOFE) role, MOFE in close collaboration with Darussalam Enterprise (DARe) and also Bank Islam Brunei Darussalam (BIBD) will be introducing an initiative to assist the affected micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) through a virtual market platform called ‘Community for Brunei’. The objective of this platform is to help congregate and gather Brunei’s community to help MSMEs sell their goods and services in a virtual market, where the public can shop virtually and make payments digitally through debit or credit cards. 

3. ‘Community for Brunei’ through a BIBD supported website www.CommunityforBrunei.com, is inspired and managed by local youths from The Collective, Think Axis Solutions, Alicia Newn and several others with similar goals specifically to help the MSMEs. 

4. ‘Community for Brunei’ will be launching 2 projects: 

• i) The ‘Community for COVID’ Project will be launched on Friday, 17 April 2020. This platform will inform the public on frontliners needs such as food and beverages, and other essentials. Information will be shared through the ‘Community for Brunei’ website, enabling the general public to select the essentials they would like to donate, which will be sent directly to the frontliners at the four COVID-19 health centres within the agreed time-frame. The platform will be able to assist in identifying and matching demand and supply so as to avoid unneccessary wastages. Moreover, the platform is also expected to give spin-offs not only to MSME vendors but to other entrepreneurs such as runners and delivery companies (e.g. GoMamam and Dart) so that they will be able to grow their company in facing these challenging times. This initiative will facilitate and better PRESS RELEASE MINISTRY OF BRUNEI DARUSSALAM NEGARA BRUNEI DARUSSALAM 3 coordinate the aspirations of Bruneians who want to help one another especially for the needs of frontliners. 

• The ‘Community for Ramadhan’ Project, also to be launched under www.CommunityforBrunei.com on 1 Ramadhan 1441 Hijrah, is rolled out so the public will be able to experience the Ramadhan Bazaar virtually, even if the physical bazaar will not take place this year. Onboarding of MSME vendors will be opened on Monday, 20 April 2020, with a few guidelines that will be shared by BIBD on Friday, 17 April 2020 through mass media. It is hoped that the MSMEs will be able to benefit from this virtual market by providing the public with the option to choose and buy food and beverages for iftar, which will be delivered to them accordingly. At the same time, the provision of the virtual market is also in line with all of the Ministry of Health’s regulation and advice on physical and social distancing. 

5. Those who would like to apply as vendors in this virtual market place must first apply online at the Registration of Companies and Business Names Division (ROCBN), MOFE by submitting and completing the information required and selecting Business PRESS RELEASE MINISTRY OF BRUNEI DARUSSALAM NEGARA BRUNEI DARUSSALAM 4 Activities 56 for Food & Beverages Services Activities. Registration fees will be waivered for the first 300 business registration applications until 30 April 2020. For business registration processes and procedures, the public may refer to the ROCBN Division at + 673-2380505 / + 673-2383444 or by email at info.rocbn@mofe.gov.bn. 

6. InshaAllah through this continuous effort, together we are cultivating the 'whole of nation' and 'whole of society' approach to collectively address and overcome the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak towards this country. Thank you. Ministry of Finance and Economy Brunei Darussalam