W ith the growing use of technology, businesses are called to undertake more research in order to attain greater levels of growth and development as well as to create ecosystems in which they can thrive.

General manager and country representative for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Therese Turner-Jones, said that in Latin American and the Caribbean one of the poorest performances, especially for business, is what is done with research.

“Most firms in the Caribbean region, about some 19 per cent or less than one in five, rely on any kind of research and development to grow their businesses — that’s an appalling number!”

Turner-Jones explained that this means we are stuck in doing things in a very old way, and it means we are not using technology and new information.

“However it’s coming — artificial intelligence or over the Internet — we are not applying new and innovative ways of doing things to the ways businesses are operating in the Caribbean,” she said while speaking at the launch of the National Business Model Competition (NBMC) held recently.

The NBMC, now in its seventh staging, is an initiative led by Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) in partnership with the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ), along with other corporate sponsors, who are working together to nurture aspiring entrepreneurs. The competition is designed to encourage and promote the creative and innovative thinking of students, facilitate entrepreneurial skills, and enhance collaboration and communication between stakeholders with the aim of cultivating more creative enterprises and promoting innovative businesses.

Turner-Jones, in applauding the aim of the competition, added that not only will the competition expose participants to the international stage, but it will also help to bridge the gap between academia, research and business in order to come up with the right solution for Jamaica’s problems.

“That’s what’s so unique about this particular competition,” she stated.

With the world rapidly becoming digitised and the future of work changing, she said that the NBMC provides apt opportunities for young entrepreneurs to take advantage of global technological advances, especially ones that address national issues, such as agriculture and climate change.

“I’m hoping that out of this competition we have some good projects to fund in the future. We will be working with the DBJ this year to support entrepreneurs and to break the back of access to finance— this will be at the heart of the future of work.”

Noting that the future of work is not as we know it today, the IDB representative said that countries should be more focused on training their students from very early on about the different ways of understanding the world and being educated.

“It’s not about mastering 15 or 23 CXCs as they do in Guyana, that’s not really a good way of educating our kids for the future. Kids for the future need to be global citizens, knowing how to be multilingual, digitally literate, and able to collaborate and work with each other in teams.

“This competition offers an opportunity for our students to put this into practice,” Turner-Jones also expressed.

Milverton Reynolds, managing director of the DBJ, said that since the inception of the competition back in 2013 its success levels have grown tremendously and the impacts are far-reaching.

He said that over the period some 2,500 student entrepreneurs have been impacted, with some 40 businesses formed, much of which are operational and providing employment.

“We are moving in incremental stages and I believe that this competition is making a difference. We at the DBJ are focused and resolute in our continued role to fill the market gaps as we seek to provide affordable access to finance for all Jamaicans,” he said.

This year’s staging of the competition, scheduled for March 26-27 at Knutsford Court Hotel, will see 19 teams of student entrepreneurs from five tertiary intuitions, namely —Northern Caribbean University (NCU), University of Technology, Jamaica (Utech), The University of the West Indies (UWI), Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts and College of Agriculture, Science and Education (CASE)—compete for $4 million in cash and prizes and the chance to represent their country on the international stage.