By the Caribbean Journal staff

Trinidad has officially launched its National Integrated Business Incubator System, an initiative to spur the development of new businesses in the country.

“IBIS was conceived out of the need to carve new paths for our country’s economic transformation, as we transition from an energy-based economy to one more focused on innovation and the acquisition of knowledge, talents and expertise,” said Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar. “IBIS is a viable mechanism for new and advanced opportunities for wealth creation and poverty alleviation.”

Persad-Bissessar pointed to late Apple founder Steve Jobs, calling on Trinidad’s young entrepreneurs to pursue the kind of success they envision.

The Prime Minister said the government’s programme tackled enterprise development on two fronts — at the community level, by creating new business and strengthening existing ones, and at the national level, to pursue large-level ideas.

According to Persad-Bissessar, just 20 percent of tertiary graduates in Trinidad who pursued Entrepreneurship actually went into business.

“This is a situation we hope to change with IBIS,” she said.