To recognize young entrepreneurs:

HSBC, British Council announce Youth Enterprise Awards 2012

Zainul MEEADH

HSBC together with the British Council announced the second edition of "HSBC Youth Enterprise Awards" (YEA) for the year 2012, at a press conference that was held at British Council premises, Colombo yesterday. It was held in the presence of Nick Nicolaou, Chief Executive Officer of HSBC Sri Lanka and Maldives, Tony Reilly, Country Director British Council, Dr. Sunil Nawarathne, Secretary Ministry of Higher Education, Lead Judge, Chandra Embuldeniya and with a guest speech by Udana Warnakulasooriya, Former contestant/winner of the competition 2011.

HSBC YEA 2012, aims to recognize young entrepreneurs and support them to start and grow their businesses. The contest is open to Sri Lankan postgraduates, undergraduates and students aged 16 to 26 years representing universities, private higher education institutions, technical and vocational institutions and professional training bodies in Sri Lanka.

The prominent change for this year's YEA competition compared to the previous year's edition is that this year the organizers have not set any restrictions on sectors under which an applicant can apply for the competition. Hence, the competition would be of open category, scaling from agriculture, medical, engineering, tourism to many more, which a competitor may be able to develop ideas on.

Tony Reilly, Country Director British Council Sri Lanka said, "What we would be looking for in this year's competition is a real world business idea with a feasible and robust plan and not just a larger than life dream, we will surely see evidence of innovation that sparks" and later in his address he said, "We will continue to mentor the contestants and the winners even after the competition to nurture their ideas in to practical implementation."

Nick Nicolaou, Chief Executive Officer HSBC Sri Lanka and Maldives in his address pointed out the importance of the private sector to drive a countries development and growth. He said "Sri Lanka as a developing country should work on producing more employees with ideas than employers with skill". Being a language neutral competition, he requested all able students and graduates from all over the island, to apply for the competition and gain a world class of experience with YEA 2012.

"Universities today are only producing job seekers and not job creators, it's time for us to work more on that too" Dr. Sunil Nawarathne, Secretary, Ministry of Higher Education thus quoted the Minister of Higher Education at the very beginning of his address. Being a veteran in the education system in Sri Lanka, he pointed out the importance of entrepreneurship being inculcated in the higher education system. Dr. Sunil Nawarathne also congratulated HSBC and British Council on their partnership and was thankful for promoting such events in the island.

As the lead judge of the competition Chandra Embuldeniya spoke very little on the scopes of the event. But he commented on the significance of this competition for a Sri Lankan student, to gather his first experience as an entrepreneur. He also commended HSBC and British Council.

However, the awards presented in this years' edition of YEA is reportedly, five times greater than the previous edition. The winning individual/ team will receive Rs.500,000 (half a million rupees), first runner-up individual/ team will receive Rs.200,000 and second runner-up individual/ team will receive Rs.100,000 as cash prizes. In the mean time, follow ups and mentoring would be done continuously even after the competition to further advance the plans that they present during the competition.

Applicants who wish to be a part of this programme fuelled by two organizations fully committed to entrepreneurship, can submit their business ideas using the application form available on http://www.britishcouncil.org/srilanka-projects-yea or http://www.britishcouncil.lk/YEA