This year in Singapore Global Entrepreneurship Week (16-22 November) is being hosted by NUS Enterprise and the Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE).

According to a recent survey of 2,300 students conducted by the NUS Entrepreneurship Centre, nearly one in five tertiary students want to become entrepreneurs after they finish school.

Yesterday Minister of Community Development, Youth and Sports Dr Vivian Balakrishnan who was a guest at the launch of Singapore’s Global entrepreneurship week said, “entrepreneurship is vital for Singapore’s growth. But the country is not moving fast enough to create more entrepreneurs”.

The launch saw aspiring entrepreneurs from eight schools and ten startups having the opportunity to showcase their projects and innovations. One such invention came from 16-year-old Nur Syahirah, which caught the eye of the business men and women at the launch. The young girl’s invention is a bottle that has a new solution to a perpetual problem in the kitchen, preventing sauces from leaking. The bottle invention took her six months to develop as part of her design and technology course. Her school, Zhonghua Secondary, received S$10,000 for the scheme. Eight schools and ten startups are supported under the SPRING Singapore’s Young Entrepreneur Scheme, also known as YES! For Schools.

Other events taking place this week include the Global Innovation Tournament (GIT) which aims to combat the affect of the recession upon individual, companies and countries. The idea is for young people  to come up with products, services and experiences to be implemented locally and globally.

See Channel Asia Singapore GEW for news footage of Singapore GEW events.