Venue: Hotel Northpole
Young Participants,
Ministry Officials,
Members of the Media,
Ladies and Gentlemen.
Bula vinaka, Bula Si’a and a very good afternoon to all of you.
It is a pleasure for me to be here in Labasa and meet young and enthusiast Fijians, who want to do something in their lives.
I have been informed that in the last three days, there has been sharing of skills and knowledge. The training covered business start-ups, including, business and marketing plan writing, legal responsibilities of a business, costing and pricing, and cashflow, to name a few.
I hope you have found your ideal business model – a model that will help you achieve your goal in starting your own business.
Ladies and Gentlemen
The Young Entrepreneurship Scheme or YES, is one of the Fijian Government’s initiative targeted towards empowering our young Fijians.
We laid the foundation with policies, such as, free education, free bus fare, scholarships and loans schemes all geared towards enabling many tens of thousands of bright-eyed young people to reach their own potential and in whom the hopes of all us rest, for a better Fiji.
In the past, young Fijians had limited opportunity to succeed. With most, if not all, electing the path towards of a desk job, rather than taking the path towards entrepreneurship or businesses. However, we are changing that for you – we are giving you more opportunities.
Ladies and Gentlemen
According to the 2017 Census that was recently published, and I’m sure many of you have seen, half of our population is below the age of 27 and half year and 69 per cent of Fijians are below the age of 40 years. This simply means is that, we are a very young nation.
This can be an enormous advantage, only if we give our young people like yourselves, the support and resources they need to grow into productive, educated and ambitious Fijians.
We are working to create an environment where you, our young people can develop. You are at the heart of our development as we work toward a modern Fiji. It is you, our young people who will continue the stewardship of our country into the future.
You now are savvier about technology than we were as youngsters. You have the power of idea and the entrepreneurial spirit to bring your inherent creativity into innovative ways of doing business and in the way our society is run.
Through YES we are investing in the abilities, intelligence and skills of young Fijians. It is an effort to bring out the exceptional strengths of the younger generation that will not only be to their benefit but also benefit the society and nation.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Through entrepreneurship, harnessing the energy and innovation of our young people, there is an opportunity to lift the quantity and quality of jobs, and to generate inclusive and sustainable growth.
Ladies and Gentlemen
In the next five years, Government will continue to carry out its work by strengthening initiatives for training empowerment and awareness programmes for our young people in the areas of entrepreneurship, leadership, climate change, sustainable livelihood and an advantage of living and thriving in a country that is developed and modern.
Therefore, initiatives such as the YES must be supported and strengthened. And commitment by all the stakeholders is needed if the goal set for YES in the NDP, to create viable micro, small business through YES, is to be achieved. Because through the right support and encouragement, these micro and small businesses could to become key drivers of innovation and growth for our economy.
Ladies and Gentlemen
My final message to those of you who wish to become entrepreneurs, you must also understand the important role of innovation, not only for commercialisation but also for improvements in business performance and also in terms of research and innovation. We believe in entrepreneurial guidance, drive and motivation which are the key pinnacles of success.
Before, I finish I request you all to provide feedback on the training. Your feedback is very important to enable us to improve the programmes for your betterment. We also want to hear from you, what training and guidance you need.
With those words, I congratulate each and everyone of you for having made this workshop a successful one and it is my hope that the spirit of friendship that has been nurtured over the last three days will be continued and strengthened. I wish you all the very best in your future endeavors.
Vinaka vakalevu and Thank you.
View PDF->Minister’s Speech – YES North Training