The
Ministry of Tourism & Aviation has encouraged Bahamians to advance
their business ideas through an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)
initiative designed to empower lower-income communities throughout the
Caribbean.
The
initiative is a business plan competition that specifically looks to
directly benefit lower income communities through linkages with the
tourism sector. Individuals in the Bahamas and other Caribbean
countries are being asked to send executive summaries for businesses
to the Opportunities for the Majority Office of the IDB. The best
entries will be selected for development into business plans, which
will be evaluated to find the competition’s winner.
“The
objective of the competition is to create mutually beneficial links
between the local economy and the tourism sector through innovative
business models that include the majority (low income communities) as
suppliers and distributors in the value chains of companies engaged
in tourism so that a larger part of the wealth generated directly benefits
the community,” said the competition invitation from the IDB.
The
invitation also set out the competition deadlines:
-
April 9, 2010 –
Deadline for submitting a three-page executive summary of entrant’s
project and a one-page company outline.
-
April 12 – 24
– A panel of judges selects the 10 most promising projects for further
development.
-
May 3 – June 25
– Chosen applicants continue to develop their executive summaries
into business plans. Prior to this, they will attend a workshop
that will give additional instructions.
-
July 23, 2010 –
Finalists present their business plans to a panel of independent judges
and up to three companies awarded consultancy services.
The
competition is open to the Bahamas, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname
and Trinidad and Tobago. Entries should be sent in PDF format
to
om-idb@iadb.org. Further information may be
obtained at
www.majoritymarkets.org or by emailing
om-idb@iadb.org.
