Speech
Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme National Awards
Kia Ora, Kia Orana, Fakalofa Lahi Atu, Taloha Ni.
In particular I greet you, Tony Caughey (Chairman, Enterprise New Zealand Trust), Don Judkins (General Manager - grants - Lion Foundation), Donna Dentice (CEO Enterprise New Zealand Trust), Members of Parliament Honourable Marian Hobbs and Mark Blumsky, sponsors, judges, young directors, ladies and gentlemen.
It gives me great pleasure to be here today to play a part in the Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme awards ceremony.
The Oxford Concise Dictionary defines "Enterprise" as "an undertaking, especially a bold or difficult one". By definition, therefore, all of you who are here today have proved that you are youngsters who are not afraid to be bold or take on difficult challenges. For that alone, you are to be congratulated. It bodes well for your future, as well as that of our country.
Enterprise is a wonderful thing. It is ideas, it is intelligence, it is energy, it is determination. And, perhaps most importantly, it is the will to create something.
It is therefore particularly pleasing that Team New Zealand, made up of Lion Foundation enterprise students, won the international award in the Global Enterprise Challenge for Creativity just a few months ago.
A prolific Jewish American writer of the last 30 years, Norman Podhoretz once said:
Creativity represents a miraculous coming together of the uninhibited energy of the child with its apparent opposite and enemy, the sense of order imposed on the disciplined adult intelligence.
You all have shown that you possess these qualities and that is something of which you can be proud. I urge you all to nurture your inquisitive nature and your desire to create and improve, to develop and refine.
There is something about New Zealand in all of this which I admire and was put well about our country in the international edition of Time Magazine on 18 August 2003 and it went:
"New Zealand is in the vanguard of a dynamic world - its human diversity, pen spaces, wit, flexibility and sheer tenacity have taken a rugged isolated country and positioned it on the cutting edge of adventure, knowledge and creativity."
I would like to take the opportunity to acknowledge the friends, families and teachers of our young entrepreneurs. You will not receive awards today but what our talented youngsters have achieved reflects well on you and the support that you have given them.
I would also like to thank Enterprise New Zealand Trust and the award sponsors for getting behind our young talent in our country.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, this is the first time that I attend this event since taking up office just over two months ago. May I say that I look forward to hearing more about the successes of all of you here tonight. This is very much a beginning for you all and, if New Zealand is to benefit from your bright ideas in the future, we need you to continue on your path demonstrated here this evening.
Kia ora koutou katoa.