‘Entrepreneurship must start in school’- GCCI President

In an effort to promote entrepreneurship among the youth population, the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) will start engaging school children, the Chamber’s President Kester Hutson has said.

Acknowledging that businesses face multiple challenges regardless of size, Hutson said targeting students is crucial to getting them to understand the ins and outs of establishing a business.

“We’ve recognised that entrepreneurship has to start from the since High school.

“Ensuring that this information is being nurtured and built out. Even the school curriculum has to cater for that so third, fourth, fifth formers have to be able to say yes, this is the direction that I need to go and what are the paths that they have to go,” Hutson told the News Room during a recent interview.

He said currently, mentors work with the chamber’s membership to ensure that they are on the path for growth and undergo the necessary training to improve. But this must start from within the school system, the GCCI Head posited.

To engage the public, the Chamber intends to use the second annual National Small Business Week to get these engagements off the ground. That event will begin on July 21 and end on July 29 with several activities planned for the duration.

It culminates with the Small Business Seminar and Expo at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre.

The Chamber’s President explained that part of its mandate is to provide the necessary tools and techniques for businesses to evolve.

“It is our task now to ensure that we nurture them [businesses] to hold their hands essentially and guide them through the process of growing…We will now be focusing on building out Guyana in a significant way so we will be growing in every aspect of the business.

“Through our membership, you [businesses] have a lot of information sessions. We have almost all of the banking institutions on our membership. It gives direct access to get information and an opportunity to make better decisions,” Hutson said.

On a further note, the GCCI has developed multiple platforms to encourage business involvement. The Investment Portal being one that allows businesses and investors to smoothly engage each other.

According to Hutson, his focus is to ensure that all who want to be involved in business and existing businesses are able to benefit from the resources offers by the Chamber.