Fluent Welsh given business support
Business Support and Networking - 23/11/2006 16:50:14
Welsh speakers are to be given business support from the National Entrepreneurship Observatory (NEO) for Wales in a bid encourage them to start up their own firms.
With cash from the European Social Fund, those who are fluent in the language will be given advice and funding to help them to start up new companies.
A recent Global Entrepreneurship Monitor study found that only 3.8 per cent of Welsh speakers in north Wales have their own firms compared with 6.7 per cent of non-Welsh speakers.
The research has led to professors Dylan Jones-Evans and David Brooksbank of the NEO to call for more business support to be given to Welsh speaking people.
"Local support bodies should be concerned that the opportunities, motivation and skills of local Welsh speakers are not being translated into actual business start-ups within the region," Prof Jones-Evans told the Western Mail.
"As attitudes in the Welsh-speaking community are generally very positive towards entrepreneurship, there must be greater effort to translate these into actual new business starts and, more importantly, to provide the appropriate business support to help their development, preferably through the medium of Welsh."
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