Students and graduates must be taught entrepreneurial skills to create opportunities.

Even multi-skilled people tend to be more enterprising in creating employment rather than waiting to be employed.

The Fiji Commerce and Employers Federation chief executive officer Kaminieli Batiweti, highlighted this while officiating the University of the South Pacific’s Entrepreneurial Fair 2022 on Tuesday.

“Through the years, the Government of the day through its funding agencies, has created opportunities for entrepreneurial creation by providing small loans to assist budding entrepreneurs,” he said.

“Since 2018, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has launched the Young Entrepreneurial Scheme (YES) to assist young people and graduates produce innovative ideas for entrepreneurial establishments.

“With our small island Pacific economy and market size, coupled with our very competitive labour market, which is further compounded by our rather limited employment opportunities, our problems and challenges are indeed varied.”

The federation has 10 councils, of which two are the Women Entrepreneur’s Business Council (WEBC) and the Youth Entrepreneurs Council (YEC) which cater for the entrepreneurs.

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