In Your Neighbourhood #4 - Youth Entrepreneurs 04/02/02

Singapore's future will depend less on solid academic grades rather than inculcating an entrepreneurial spirit in its citizens.

That has been the mantra of its political leaders and academic observers.

Its a brave new world, and the place to start the re-programming of Singapore is, of course, the youths!

Hi welcome to In Your Neighbourhood with me Chong Ching Liang as I travel to the Youth Entrepreneurship Programme Awards of Central Singapore Community Development Council.

Central Singapore's Mayor Heng Chee How on the objective of organising the your entrepreneurship programme or Y-E-P.

"Coming with a programme like Youth entrepreneurship, the idea behind it is to channel the creative desires of youth, the energy to make a difference in a particular direction. So in this case for those who have the passion to develop commercial ideas, we provide an avenue. And so we bring in experts and experience people and they will provide the first step in terms of explaining what the thing is about and giving guidance that if you really want to develop the business, then these are the steps that you take."

This the second time that Central Singapore has organised such a programme for school students.

June last year was the first time.

The response to the second Y-E-P was overwhelming.

100 students from 9 schools participated and they ranged from Secondary to Junior College students.

And the winners?

MC of the awards, Patrick Ang.

"In the third place you have the team, Brainstorm. [Applause] And the second prize we have the company Dot. [Applause] And of course you all know who the top company is, [Applause] we have one more left, and that is Zest-O. [Applause]. "

Zest-O the winning group, wants to start a discount card for the Youths called the U-Card.

Here's group member Evelyn on the feasibility and attractiveness of their proposed product.

Evelyn, of Zest-O

"Firstly we have a large market. According to the Singapore censors report 2000; there are 564 thousand people between the ages of 12 and 24. This means its a possible market for 546 thousand for the U. Why it's attractive: Firstly students. Students will be able to enjoy a wide range of benefits including attractive discounts and shopping and fashion tips. Thus they will subscribe to the U. Secondly, parents. Parents will be glad to know that their children are saving due to the discounts that they are entitled to and are maximising their allowance. And we are also promoting the entrepreneurial spirit. "

There are already a lot of discount cards out in the market and also the almost slogan like repeating of "promoting the entrepreneurial spirit" is somewhat worrying.

Every group has the same mantra.

Are such programme linked to reality?

Learning Capital International is the trainer for Central Singapore's Y-E-P.

Its Business Development Executive Mohd Farid said that eventually, reality will reach the students if they are diligent in following their plans through.

"After this there will be a six month follow-up session by our business consultants where they're going to meet up once a month or they can actually keep in touch with our consultants that will follow through what they have gone through for the five days. Uhm asking them questions, probing them further into their business on whether they should get into their business, on whether they should get embarked into the business, where they have to learn the process and understanding. That's where they will learn the reality."

Mayor Heng concurs that the real lesson will be learnt at the final planning and execution stages.

"Clearly business plans would have to be based on sound ideas, good concepts, careful planning, very strong marketing and this is all part of the learning process. So I think today we have very good participation from the different groups and they will, in the course of the coming weeks and months, refine their plans. Some of these plans will be easier to execute than others and I am sure in the course of times, some of them will succeed very well."

The Central Singapore CDC also has a fund of 5 thousand dollars for student groups with good business models.

After all, the five thousand dollars isn't from their pocket and losing that amount may not sting as much.

So caution is thrown to the wind.

Mayor Heng explains why he doesn't think that fund will cause complacency.

"Oh this is a very small modest funds that we have set up. It's for the purposes of signaling our interests to co-participate with enthusiasts in this area. Clearly we will have to go throw a process of evaluation of plans as well and this form of encouragement will go some way toward helping them get started. It is not to fund the running costs of a business."

Finally, Mayor Heng says that his CDC is a different sort of venture capitalist.

"We are not looking at this as an investment prior to IPO in order to reap handsome rewards. I think you have to see this in the context of the programme objective which is to encourage a form of youth activism, youth leadership and learning the skills for adult life and this is good investment."

We shall wait and see if any budding C.K. Tang or Sim Wong Hoo comes out of this.

But even if none emerge, it'll be refreshing to have a mindset change about what failures means.

This is Chong Ching Liang for Newsradio 938.

Related websites:
National Youth Council
http://www.nyc.gov.sg/
Central Singapore Community Development Council
http://www.centralsingapore.org.sg/site/home/index.html
Newsradio938
http://newsradio.mediacorpradio.com/