Distinguished guests,

Principals and students,

Ladies and gentlemen

Good afternoon. I am sure I speak on behalf of everyone present in complimenting the students for their interesting and imaginative presentations. Let me congratulate all ten groups of students who are here today, and their schools. I am sure that getting to this final round of the Bizworld competition has been a challenge in itself, and something that you can take a little pride in.

The competition is organised by BizWorld Asia in conjunction with the Global Entrepolis @ Singapore 2003, a weeklong series of events. Global Entrepolis will open later this evening. It will bring together some of the best minds in industry and innovation to Singapore. The participants who are here for the final round of this year’s BizWorld Competition are not so different. Their achievements at this young age mark them out as potential entrepreneurs and value creators in the years to come.

Since the launch of the BizWorld programme in March last year, some 4,000 students from Primary 5 to Secondary 2 have gone through and benefited from the programme. That’s a quick uptake. What’s equally heartening is that BizWorld has attracted more than 500 volunteers, including teachers from 83 schools to date. These numbers tell us something about the interest and genuine desire in our schools to nurture our young to explore and discover their potential in this area.

The programme teaches them the ABCs of business, including how to put together a business of designing, making, selling and financing their friendship bracelets. The students are put through a "reality programme" of sorts. I am not sure you would equate it to "Fear Factor" or the "Amazing Race", but I am sure they would have felt some degree of apprehension and the heat of competition as they went through the programme. They would have experienced the thrill of a sale and the disappointment of rejection. They would have come face to face with their competitors and worked out how best to distinguish themselves from the rest of the field. Most important, they have had to learn to anticipate the needs of the customer.

From all indications, the students have also had a good time - certainly those I’ve met today were having fun. That’s a lesson in itself about business and doing well in the workplace. A dose of fun is as important as making the tills ring. Or, more to the point, if you have fun, the tills will ring.

The Bizworld programme comes at a time when entrepreneurship being championed in Singapore. We want to develop a lasting entrepreneurial culture, and for good reasons. Entrepreneurship is the spur for innovation. It will help inject more diversity and depth in our economy in our next phase of development as a nation. It will create new jobs to replace those that will be lost.

To broaden our base of entrepreneurs, we are reviewing and changing our policies and rules our policies and rules to ensure they do not inhibit start-ups and business growth. We are also seeking to facilitate easier access to funding by small or young firms. We are making headway, with more new ventures and enterprises being formed each year and more SMEs being attracted to Singapore from all over the world.

But the critical gap that has to be closed is not in the regulatory infrastructure or funding markets, but in attitudes. From young, we have to learn to experiment, question old assumptions, try out new ways, and accept that encountering failure is part of the path to success. We have started with our schools. School leaders are embracing a culture of constant improvement, and of being willing to make occasional leaps of innovation. Through the classroom, CCAs, field trips and expeditions and competions like this one, we want our young to get the hang of experimenting, and accepting the false starts and dead ends that often come with it.

In conclusion, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the winning team of this year’s BizWorld Competition for their exceptional achievement, and all the teams who are here today for the determination and imagination they have shown. I hope each of you sees this as an integral part of your journey of learning. Thank you.