A regional body designed to accelerate the involvement of young Caribbean people in entrepreneurial pursuits could be established by mid-2011 according to Regional Technical Coordinator for Youth Business Trusts in the Caribbean Marcia Brandon.
Plans for the establishment of the body are already well-advanced, according to Brandon, who is also Exe-cutive Director of the Barbados Youth Business Trust. Initiatives are underway to secure the endorsement of governments region-wide for the new body to be accorded the status of a Caribbean Community (Caricom) organisation. Brandon envisages that the new regional body will be accorded with lead responsibility for mobilizing the young entrepreneurial talent in the Caribbean.
In an exclusive interview with Stabroek Business earlier this week, Ms. Brandon, who is in Guyana as part of a regional monitoring assignment to assess the work of Youth Business Trusts in the Caribbean, said that the purpose behind the creation of the new regional body is to mobilize both the material and technical resources necessary to enable the region to more aggressively promote the involvement of young Caribbean people in entrepreneurial pursuits. High on the agenda during the planning phase of the exercise is the mobilization of funds to equip the organisation to perform its functions.
According to Brandon, the planners will be seeking to engage both regional governments and regional and international organisations with a view to securing funding commitments for the new body. In addition, she disclosed that discussions will also be held with the Georgetown-based Cari-com Secretariat on matters pertaining to the setting up of the new body.
“One of our concerns is that Youth Business Trusts in the region spend a great deal of time raising their own funds to undertake projects. We are hoping a Carib-bean Group of Youth Busi-ness Trusts can be effective in lobbying governments and other institutions to make investments in the project.” Ten countries in the region, Guyana, Trini-dad and Tobago, Jamaica, Barbados, Haiti, Antigua, St Lucia, St Vincent, Belize and Dominica, have already established Youth Business Trusts and according to Brandon Grenada, St Kitts and Bermuda are working towards the establishment of similar local bodies.
The secretariat for the new organisation will be established in Barbados and Brandon said the government has already indicated its preparedness to support the project. The Government of Barbados has also committed EC$500,000 to the work of the BYBT in 2011.
Both the BYBP and its local counterpart, the GYBT received high marks in a recent study undertaken by the Arthur Loc Jack School of Business in Trinidad and Tobago.
Brandon told Stabroek Business that part of her current focus in her work with Youth Business Trusts in the Region is on building strong mentoring structures through which young entrepreneurs can benefit from the advice and guidance of experienced mentors who are themselves accomplished entrepreneurs. She disclosed that Barbados is currently benefiting from a four-year project, ‘Mentor-ing Model to Develop Young Caribbean Entrepre-neurs’ which has already recruited 77 mentors. Of these, 54 have already been trained and assigned to young entrepreneurs.
Meanwhile, according to Brandon the current economic climate has attracted an increased number of young Barbadians seeking the help on the BYBP in setting up businesses. She said while this development can be seen as a positive the trust has been unable to lend financial assistance to applicants in view of a reduction in its funds for lending. At the same time, Brandon said that over the years, the BYBT has made a significant contribution to promoting youth entrepreneurship in Barbados. “More than 70 per cent of our young entrepreneurs have remained in business after five years and since we were established 14 years ago we have helped around 20,000 young people,” she added.
