General Manager of the Barbados Youth Business Trust, Cardelle Fergusson, having a word with Minister of Culture, Sports and Youth Stephen Lashley (left) at the event.

General Manager of the Barbados Youth Business Trust, Cardelle Fergusson, having a word with Minister of Culture, Sports and Youth Stephen Lashley (left) at the event.

Minister Lashley calls on entrepreneurs to think big

 

Minister of Culture, Sports and Youth Stephen Lashley is making a call for a more aggressive focus to transforming entrepreneurial ideas into businesses that grow wealth for this nation.
 
He told those gathered at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus’ School of Business for the launch of the Global Entrepreneurship Week yesterday, that economic expansion could not be only grown by the public purse, but by emerging entrepreneurs. He also insisted that these individuals must see themselves as creators that can export their goods and services to the rest of the world.
 
Pointing to the millions of dollars spent educating the youth yearly, the minister said it is time to see the results of this investment.
 
“It is time to translate that investment in education into serious opportunities and initiatives to grow our businesses, and we must have the confidence that we can be global players,” he said, noting that only a few businesses are looking to export to international countries – a fact which must change,” he asserted.
 
Commenting on the opportunity next year’s Carifesta would create for Caribbean cultural entrepreneurs to showcase their services and their goods to the rest of the world, he noted that the event could also be a platform for cultural practitioners in Barbados and in the Caribbean to bring such goods and services into European and other markets.
 
Admitting that the Economic Partnership Agreement had not really had much of an impact on entrepreneurs, particularly in the area of fashion and visual arts, the minister claimed, “If we can do this successfully especially into European and North American markets, we can begin to provide the answers to creating new streams of foreign direct inflows of foreign exchange."
 
He continued, “We have to be much more focused, the energy needs to be a bit more deliberate to tackling some of the challenges that we are facing not only here in Barbados, but in the region in terms of entrepreneurship.” (JMB) 
 

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