Global Entrepreneurship Week comes to Bhutan | Youth Business ...

By Ewan Gaffney: YBI Communications Manager

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As well as hosting? Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) in the UK? from our network team HQ in London, Youth Business International lives? up to its name during the week, with our? members around the world hosting the campaign in a further 10 countries.

From Bhutan to Barbados, GEW is a natural fit for YBI programmes which are used to supporting and promoting entrepreneurship throughout the year. In 2012 there was a huge variety of GEW activity ?going on right around the world. Not to mention our ?Around the world, around the clock? campaign which highlighted the fact? that at any given moment of the day, somewhere a? YBI entrepreneur is hard at work building and growing their business.

Aside from all this, there was one campaign that really caught our attention this year. That was the inaugural Global Entrepreneurship Week in the Kingdom of Bhutan.

I was lucky enough to visit Bhutan, and the YBI member there, earlier this year. I wrote about my trip on this blog. YBI is represented in the country by the Loden Entrepreneurship Programme (LEP), and it was during an accreditation visit that I introduced them to GEW, and suggested that they might be interested in becoming the local host organisation. With GEW activity in 125 countries and counting, there are less and less nations without a host, so taking this responsibly is a great way for LEP to make even deeper connections? with the global entrepreneurship community.

With some encouragement from YBI, LEP set about organising its first week of GEW events in early 2012.

Having seen the excellent work that LEP does to support young entrepreneurs on the ground in Bhutan, I was concerned that the responsibility of hosting the campaign should not detract from their main goal of providing close and on-going support to entrepreneurs.? LEP has approved 12 businesses for funding from a group of over 80 this year. These businesses will all receive an interest free loan and on-going mentoring.?With all this work going on, my suggestion to my colleagues in Bhutan was to start small, get a feel for the GEW campaign and expand the portfolio of events gradually.

The launch of Global Entrepreneurship Week in Bhutan took place in the historic Clock Tower Square

I?needn?t?have worried. Last week my colleague Dorji emailed me over the itinerary for the week. In typical Bhutanese fashion,?LEP have excelled themselves with the minimum of fuss.? The first ever GEW in Bhutan included:? TV and radio coverage, a speech from a government minister and the attendance of a member of the Royal Family. There are lots of well-established GEW campaigns around the world that would love to achieve that level of exposure.

LEP activities included a series of training sessions and seminars that focused on practical topics like accounting, social entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship in the context of the national measurement of Gross National Happiness (GNH), the Bhutanese equivalent of GDP.

The centrepiece of the week was an entrepreneurship fair, held in the central Clock Tower Square. The campaign and the fair were officially opened here by HRH Ashi Deki Yangzom Wangchuk, who addressed the audience about the importance of developing an entrepreneurial mind-set within Bhutanese society amd within the framework of?Buddhist teachings?; something the LEP is taking a leading role in doing. ??

?As Buddhists and responsible human beings, it is also important we work hard not just out of greed to amass wealth and derive profit but to be productive citizens so that you can help both yourself and the people around you.? Her excellent speech is worth reading in its?entirety.

The guest of honour HRH Ashi Deki Yangzom Wangchuk addresses guests at the launch of GEW in Bhutan

The gathering, set under a traditional tented covering and framed by the majestic backdrop of Bhutanese mountains, was also addressed by Dr Karma Phuntso, one of the founders of LEP. Dr Karma spoke of how important it was for Bhutan to ?develop and promote a new and vibrant culture of entrepreneurship and enterprise? and his pride at being able to ?join some 125 countries around the world to celebrate and promote the culture of innovation and enterprise, intelligence and integrity.?

Despite the high profile launch event, the highlight of the week must have been be the formal presentation of certificates to the 12 entrepreneurs whose business plans had proven robust enough to be awarded funding by the LEP.

The 12 business, from sectors including farming, baking and agriculture, were chosen by a panel of experts and will go on to receive an interest free loan, training, mentoring and on-going support from the expert team at Loden. For them this is the beginning of an exciting journey into the world of entrepreneurship.

Speaking about the triple pronged support Loden and other YBI members offer, Director of the Foundation Gerard Tardy said, ?So this is the type of help we try to give. We don?t think that a loan in a way is most important. What we try to do is provide a lot more help, in terms of training, appointing mentors. So for each project there is one local mentor and one international mentor.?

Here?s to a bright future for Global Entrepreneurship Week, and entrepreneurship in general,? in the Kingdom of the Thunder Dragon.

You can see the full list of GEW activities on the?Loden website.

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Source: http://www.youthbusiness.org/global-entrepreneurship-week-comes-to-bhutan/

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