August 30, 2022
Like the rest of the world, Haiti also celebrated entrepreneurship!
"Everyone knew it was impossible, there came a fool who didn't know it and did it! It's this little phrase from Marcel Pagnol, leitmotif of an old friend, that comes to mind every time we allude to entrepreneurship. André Mrais continues in the same vein by saying this: “The world is progressing thanks to the impossible things that have been achieved” and I will add by entrepreneurs. A simple glance around us allows us to realize that everything we use in our everyday lives has been the object of the creativity of a person or a group of people who have materialized an opportunity. . An entrepreneur is someone who has the ability to seize an opportunity that generates or can generate value through a unique combination of resources.
What would the leaders of our country gain from setting up an environment conducive to the development of entrepreneurship in Haiti? To answer such a question let us analyze the example of the Republic of China Taiwan. This country has many similarities with ours: mountainous island, with an essentially agricultural economy in time. The authorities of this country have been able to create winning conditions there by promoting an entrepreneurial culture that led to the famous "Taiwan miracle". Indeed, from 1962 to 2014 the average annual per capita income in Taiwan rose from US$170 to US$41,000. So in five to six decades of good management, Taiwan has managed to get rid of the status of a small, mainly agricultural island to put on that of a leading economic power in the production of high-tech goods. Taiwan has focused its development efforts around five major innovative industries: green energy, technology hubs, biotechnology, smart machinery, and defense.
This week the world is celebrating entrepreneurship through Global Entrepreneurship Week, and Haiti did so as part of CEDEL Haiti's annual Entrepreneurship Forum. Global Entrepreneurship Week is an event where nearly 160 countries pledge to inspire millions of people to develop an entrepreneurial culture through thousands of events and competitions.
The annual CEDEL Haiti Entrepreneurship Forum was created in 2012. It is an event that raises public awareness of the importance of developing an entrepreneurial spirit. This year the forum organized its fifth edition and revolves around the theme: “Choose to undertake, Dare to innovate!!! Throughout the past week CEDEL Haiti has offered the public a variety of activities on entrepreneurship and its different aspects: conference for secondary school students and vocational schools, moment of sharing with innovative entrepreneurs, conference on innovation, business plan competition etc. CEDEL Haiti this year wanted and succeeded in making entrepreneurs and future entrepreneurs understand that they can choose entrepreneurship and do things differently!
Let's hope that CEDEL will contribute to the implementation of this entrepreneurial culture that Haiti so badly needs; maybe one day it will be said that entrepreneurship has allowed Haiti to leave its status of "pain of the West Indies" to move to that of "miracle of the Caribbean"!
Fabiola Benoit
+509 4620-9594
