Local Entrepreneurs attend summit in Brazil

A contingent of four Vincentian entrepreneurs attended the 10th World Summit of Young Entrepreneurs in Sao Paulo, Brazil from Tuesday March 14 to Friday March 17, 2006.

Ken DaSilva of Mountain Top Spring Water, Kimya Glasgow of Kimya Glasgow Designs, Michael John of Computec and Monique Tash of Image Modelling Agency attended the conference with some 1500 other participants from 80 countries worldwide.{{more}}

The title of the conference was “Let’s Make a New Deal” and it was held under the auspices of the Sao Paulo government and CEO of the World Trade University Global Secretariat, Mr Sujit Chowdhury.

The 10th World Summit of Young Entrepreneurs (WSYE) is a public-private partnership initiative of the World Trade University Global Secretariat based in Canada, working with the UN Special Unit for South-South Cooperation (who part sponsored the contingent’s participation), the Multilateral Invest Fund – IADB, and the World Travel and Tourism Council.

The specific goal of the 10th WSYE was to provide “a platform for global entrepreneurs in emerging markets, to stimulate a productive and sustainable entrepreneurial environment for Brazil, South America, and around the World, to provide a timely forum for leading young entrepreneurs to learn from each other’s experiences, extend global networks, and identify new opportunities for international expansion of their businesses”.

World Trade University Global Secretariat believes that “young entrepreneurs are vital to economic prosperity. To realize the benefits entrepreneurs can bring to their economies, governments must make it easier for women and men to start and grow their businesses. As well, a broad concept of entrepreneurship must be encouraged and extended to different kinds of ventures and sectors. Entrepreneurs carry the future of their nations on their shoulders. Accordingly, they need connections, training, mentorship, finance, business support and access to new markets around the world, as well as support from their communities to engage as emerging young leaders.”

The conference featured numerous noted speakers including Dr Mae Jemison, First Woman of Colour in Space, Mr Brian Davis, Founder of the highly successful company Xango, and Andrew Fiddaman, Associate Director of the Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum.

Attendees also had the opportunity to network and make presentations on their businesses to the entire congress.

The contingent was supported by the National Investment Promotions Inc (NIPI) Export Development Strategy, with Mr DaSilva, Mr John and Mrs Tash being nominated by the NIPI and Ms Glasgow being nominated by the St Vincent and the Grenadines Chamber of Industry and Commerce.

The next World Summit of Young Entrepreneurs is slated to be held in 2 years. Previous summits have been held in the Dominican Republic, Belgium, the USA and France.