Rama Sithanen Budget speech: Entrepreneurs 1

You will be glad to know that of the list of selected words, I have chosen to sense the essence of our minister’s speech, the word NEW was said 65 times, INVEST* 65 times, EMPLOY* 59 times, JOB 41 times, DEVELOP*37 times, SME 32 times, SKILL 24 times and ENTREPRENEUR 24 times.

Who is an entrepreneur? Where do the terms come from?

Lucky us Mauritian for being bi-lingual. Our French vibes might give us a better understanding of the word.

I quote the world business guru, Peter Drucker:

“The entrepreneur,” said the French economist J. B. Say around 1800, “shifts economic resources out of an area of lower and into an area of higher productivity and greater yield.” But Say’s definition does not tell us who this “entrepreneur” is. And since Say coined the term almost two hundred years ago, there has been total confusion over the definitions of “entrepreneur” and “entrepreneurship.”

WIKIPEDIA gives:

An entrepreneur (a loanword from French) is a person who undertakes and operates a new enterprise or venture, and assumes some accountability for the inherent risks.

Most commonly, the term entrepreneur applies to someone who establishes a new entity to offer a new or existing product or service into a new or existing market, whether for a profit or not-for-profit outcome (see entredonneur).

Business entrepreneurs often have strong beliefs about a market opportunity and are willing to accept a high level of personal, professional, or financial risk to pursue that opportunity. Business entrepreneurs are often highly regarded in US culture as being a critical component of its capitalistic society.

Famed entrepreneurs in America include: Henry Ford (automobiles), J. Pierpont Morgan (banking), Thomas Edison (electricity/light bulbs), Barron Collier (advertising), Milton S. Hershey (confections), Bill Gates (computer operating systems and applications), Steve Jobs (computer hardware, software), among others.

The British entrepreneurs include: Richard Branson (travel and media)

It would appear that entrepreneurship would ooze us, Mauritius out of our predicament and to propel us into the coming era of global competition.

I quote relevant extract of the speech:

A cycle based on trade preferences that has allowed our country to make significant progress since independence. We have used these trade preferences and also overseas development assistance well. However, the world has changed and we have not adapted. The preferences are now being swept away but we have not reacted. We have been naïve in believing that these preferences would endure and that we could continue to obtain concessionary finance to sustain our now outdated socio-economic model.

It is time for the nation to embrace radical change and build a new, open and competitive service platform that is fully integrated into the global economy, like Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubay. More important, by also removing other disincentives to small businesses and to hire workers, we will increase employment, reduce vulnerability and alleviate poverty.

This is why the first Budget of l’Alliance Sociale is not, as many feared, about austerity but instead launches the changes needed for a new era of growth, wealth and employment creation.

Broadening the circle of opportunities

To broaden the circle of opportunities we will

1. set up an innovative and comprehensive Economic Empowerment Programme;

2. tackle high female unemployment and low earnings of women;

3. radically improve the support framework for new entrepreneurs and SMEs;

4. Expand the range of financing instruments for micro enterprises and SMEs.

I am setting myself to ponder, to encourage and if possible to building more entrepreneurship in the future. I consider myself to have been through out my carrier an entrepreneur. Sharing my experiences could trigger hopefully more entrepreneurship so much needed and sought of.