16 November 2009
MINISTER of Sport, Youth and Child Development, Kenneth Chipungu says the Government wants to see more young people being self-employed and contribute to the economic development of the nation.
Mr Chipungu said it was because of this that the Government was committed to promoting entrepreneurship so that more young people were able to set up their own businesses and unleash their potential for national development.
He said this in Lusaka yesterday in his address to the nation on the eve of the celebrations to mark the Global Entrepreneurship Week which will run from today to November 22 under the theme 'Unleashing Ideas of Tomorrow's Entrepreneurship'.
Chipungu called on the youth to rise to the occasion and be more innovative and come up with ideas on how they could be good entrepreneurs.
He said his ministry, which is mandated to improve the welfare of young people who make up the majority of the country's population, would strive to address most of the challenges facing young people.
He cited issues like unemployment, HIV/AIDS and inadequate skills that hindered young people from being employed as being on the top list of his ministry's agenda.
The sports minister said his ministry together with its cooperating partners had lined up a number of competitive activities which include innovations tournament, which has a mystery question and the global clean and green tech open ideas competition where young people are supposed to come up with innovative green and clean businesses.
He said the competitions had prizes ranging from US$50,000 to $100,000.
He encouraged the youth and students at all levels to participate in the competitions to stand a chance of winning money which could better their livelihoods.
The Global Entrepreneurship Week will focus on, among other things, the introduction of entrepreneurship to young people, networking young people and organisations across national boundaries to discover new ideas at the intersection of cultures and disciplines.
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