Mr Teo Ser Luck at the ACE Entrepreneurship Week Opening Ceremony

​ADDRESS BY MR TEO SER LUCK, MINISTER OF STATE FOR TRADE & INDUSTRY AND ACE CHAIRMAN, AT THE ACE ENTREPRENEURSHIP WEEK OPENING CEREMONY ON 9 NOVEMBER 2012, 10.30AM, KALLANG LEISURE PARK ATRIUM

Ladies and gentlemen,

Boys and girls,

Good morning.

Introduction

Welcome to the opening ceremony of the ACE Entrepreneurship Week organised by the Action Community for Entrepreneurship! On behalf of everyone at ACE, I thank all of you for joining us. I am happy to see so many enthusiastic faces here today.

We have put together many activities for you over the next two weeks.  Starting from today, you can participate in activities such as the Innobiz Exhibition, which showcases 50 booths of the best business ideas from students.  This is possible because ACE has the strong support of our partners including the Institutes of Higher Learning, Moneytree and SPRING Singapore.  I would like to thank them for their contribution.

The role of ACE is to help aspiring entrepreneurs take the first step to start their business.  We provide funding, mentoring and networks to help them do so.  Since early this year, we have funded and mentored 26 start-ups and organised numerous events which have reached out to more than 3,500 participants, in Singapore and also in Beijing, where we have set up the ACE Beijing Chapter.

But we want to do more.  We think entrepreneurship can be nurtured long before an entrepreneur actually starts his or her first business.  Therefore, we want to help them build their entrepreneurial dreams from young.

Entrepreneurs are inspiring people.  They chart their own path and make their own rules.  As an entrepreneur, you decide how you want to spend each day when you wake up, how to grow your business and make it bigger and better.  All of you here can be an entrepreneur, and the best time to develop that entrepreneurial mindset is when you are young.

ACE Entrepreneurship Education Taskforce

It was with this in mind that ACE formed the Entrepreneurship Education Task Force in June. It is made up of entrepreneurs, educators and representatives from the Ministry of Education and SPRING Singapore.  For the past few months, the task force conducted a review and came up with some key recommendations to enhance entrepreneurship learning in secondary and tertiary schools. I will be sharing the task force’s recommendations at a media conference later.

All these recommendations aim to raise awareness and build entrepreneurship skills as well as develop positive entrepreneurial traits in our students.  Of course, we are mindful of the packed schedule for school work and other activities. With a more structured approach towards entrepreneurship learning, we hope to see more students coming forward with good ideas, and we will support those who are passionate about starting their own business and being their own boss.

Conclusion

The theme for this year’s ACE Entrepreneurship Week is “Discover the Boss in You”. We hope all of you here will be inspired to follow your dreams and take the path less travelled.

Finally, I hope you will actively participate the activities we have lined up for you. I wish you all a fruitful experience at the ACE Entrepreneurship Week.