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02nd
March 2010
YOUTH SUMMIT
By Special Correspondent
(Photo)
The winners of the Ministry's Youth Business
Innovation contest (Left to right): 3rd place
Niomi Alexander, 2nd place Gilbert Joseph and
1st place Sancha Gaspard. They left the session
with computers and cash to help transform their
business ideas to reality.
The
Government has endorsed plans for a Youth Summit
– to bring young St. Lucians together
in one room, to tell Cabinet Ministers what
they want -- and how to get it done. So says
Minister for Social Transformation, Youth and
Sports, Lennard Montoute.
The minister made the disclosure Sunday afternoon
while addressing the closing ceremony of his
ministry’s Youth Business Innovation Program,
which saw three of nine participants awarded
prizes for the best innovative ideas for developing
their own businesses.
The ceremony was organized by the Community
Development section of the Ministry, which initiated
the program back in 2008, but ran into difficulties
attracting the funding needed for the participants
to graduate. But three local companies –
Asphalt and Mining (A&M), LIME and Bank
of St. Lucia came to the rescue -- and the winners
went home with desktop and laptop computers
– plus thousands of dollars to go towards
making their ideas into reality.
Lamenting the lack of sufficient resources to
support young people’s projects and ideas,
the minister said their overall sense of neglect
will be somewhat addressed through the proposed
summit -- at which it will be the young people
dictating to the Government, and not vice versa.
He said a date will be announced later, but
confirmed that “the Cabinet of Ministers
endorsed the proposal for a Youth Summit at
our last meeting on Thursday (last week).”
He said it will be patterned along the lines
of a recent regional youth summit in which St.
Lucia also participated.
Mr Montoute said his ministry was sympathetic
to the plight of the nation’s young people
and invited organizations involved in development
of entrepreneurial programs among youth to send
proposals to him ahead of the upcoming Budget.
“I am preparing for (the) Budget and I
invite organizations involved in such programs
to send their ideas to me,” he said.
The feature address was delivered by Yachting
Director of the St. Lucia Tourist Board, Mr
Cuthbert Didier, who expressed “shock”
at the level of unemployment among young persons
disclosed earlier by a Ministry official. He
called on local commercial banks “to make
capital available to new young entrepreneurs.”
Didier also urged the banks to ease on the sort
of prohibitive practices that see them asking
young persons with business ideas “to
provide collateral equal to the loans being
sought.”
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Didier encouraged the graduating
class to “take a page from the likes
of Mr Rayneau Gajadhar” (who was present
as an invited guest). Said Didier, “I
remember the days when Rayneau was called
Midnight Cowboy because he used to work by
night to beat the competition. Today, as a
result of his sacrifice and hard work, he
owns one of the largest construction firms
on the island -- and he also owns his own
quarry.”
But Didier also warned that the business environment
today will not allow the new business persons
to wait until tomorrow to do what they can
today. “The great thing about the future
is that it’s a day away, but we are
living now – today.” If each of
them could employ one other person, he told
them, “then you would be making your
contribution as an entrepreneur.”
Other speakers included: Project Coordinator
Lyndel Archibald, Deputy Director of Community
Services Velda Joseph and Facilitator Martin
Weekes.
The three top winners were Sancha Gaspard
– First, with a project using recyclable
paper to create craft items; Gilbert Joseph
– Second, with a project creating solar
water and electricity; and Niomi Alexander
– Third, with a small desktop publishing
company. Ms Alexander won a desktop computer
from Asphalt & Mining (A&M) Holdings
and $3,000 from the Ministry of Social Transformation;
Mr Joseph won a laptop from LIME and $4,000
from the ministry; and Ms Gaspard won a laptop
(compliments the minister) and $5,000 compliments
Bank of St. Lucia.
The project was the initiative (two years
ago) of then Anse La Raye-Canaries Community
Development Officer Urania Joseph, who returned
recently from Canada in time for its culmination.
The minister, the feature speaker and the
facilitator all lamented the absence of the
local press, some indicating that if there
had been a shooting or violent incident in
the vicinity, there would have been several
reporters.
What they didn’t realize was that The
VOICE had a fly on the wall.
Discuss
Story
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