Entrepreneurship development in Seychelles will be in the spotlight this week as the island nation was chosen out of 170 countries to host for the first time Global Entrepreneurship Week.
This is the second year that Seychelles is participating in Global Entrepreneurship Week, an initiative that started in 2008. To celebrate this event, the Department of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development, together with its partners, is organising and coordinating activities from November 16-22.
Online interactive quizzes, topical debates on youth and women, a reality series, lectures for students on ‘how to run a business for a day’, networking events and a trade fair to promote locally made products are some of the activities planned.
The new Minister of Investment, Entrepreneurship & Industry, Devika Vidot, said, “It is through this that we will try and grab opportunities with young entrepreneurs or existing businesses so that they can grow further and diversify, or come up with new ideas and ways of doing things.”
“We will be able to gauge the number of ideas that we have, the aspiration of the youth, and the amount of drive that existing companies have. I would be happy to see everyone playing an active role in our Global Entrepreneurship Week as this is an exceptional opportunity that Seychelles has received,” said Vidot.
She called on people who have thought about creating a business to bring forth their ideas so that they can get started. Entrepreneurs are valuable to any economy because they create and distribute new wealth, generate new employment and raise the standards of living with their ground-breaking ventures.
In 2019, Seychelles embarked on a collaboration with the United Nations Corporation of Trade and Development (UNCTAD) for the development of an entrepreneurship strategy for the archipelago in the western Indian Ocean.
The strategy hopes to increase the level of entrepreneurial activity by developing policies that directly address entrepreneurs’ needs and optimising the regulatory environment. It will also serve to enhance the entrepreneurship education and skills of the general population, facilitate technology exchange and innovation, improve access to finance and promote awareness and networking.
During an interview with the Seychelles Broadcasting Cooperation, the principal secretary of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development, Angelique Antat, said the country is halfway through completing the policy.
“There is also a training programme that has been adopted around the world by 40 countries called EMPRETEC. A person with a passion can enter the training programme and they can tell you where you can open a business based on what you are passionate about. This is already being done in Seychelles, but the programme will bring more to what is already being done,” said Antat. EMPRETEC is a capacity-building programme of the United Nations.
The Global Entrepreneurship Week Seychelles started with an address by President Wavel Ramkalawan, who said that “success lies within the time and efforts dedicated to doing what you truly love.”
“I have no doubt that with passion and determination, we shall overcome the many unforeseen challenges that may come our way. After all, therein lies
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