Singaporean Entrepreneurs

Did you know that new housing regulations in England mandate that all homes in the country be emission free by 2016?

THE LIGHTHOUSE: The UK’s first zero-emission home | Inhabitat – Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building

Parisian architect Patrick Nadeau is currently constructing a gorgeous green house disguised as a grassy hill in the city of Reims, France.

Read more: Hill-Shaped French Eco House is a New Wave in Green Building | Inhabitat – Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building

Bird Island is a stunning urban renewal project that is currently being developed in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Designed by Graft Lab architects for the YTL Green Home Competition, the project comprises a zero energy home made of sustainably-sourced silicone glass fabric.

Read more: Bird Island: Zero Energy Home in Kuala Lumpur | Inhabitat – Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building

The necessity of micro-financing becomes more and more evident the deeper into rural and agricultural places you go to. Not the commercialized kind, but the kind where there are gorgeous plots of land with all sorts of produce owned by small farmers and the land is still tilled by carabaos.

All seems great and the provincial laid-back life is envious to many who are jaded by the city-life, but then you realize how bad things can get when the weather turns against the farmer.

Especially in our changing weather patterns these years, summers now seem to fill with rain and the wet season can have prolonged dry periods, throwing the entire routine and harvesting schedule off.

When this happens and entire crop plantations are decimated (we saw rice that had been drying on the ground earlier completely destroyed by the sudden deluge- it took all of 5 minutes to go from sunny to rainy to puddles) the farmer has to look for sources to finance his next crop and in the mean time feed his family.

Unlike the rest of us who have access to education and technology who would find a way to get a Personal loan for poor credit, your typical farmer or sari-sari store owner has no choice. In fact, even if they are literate and even if they know how to use the internet, online sites such as eLoanPersonal are probably not of much use to them because they simply have no paper trail to speak of. They don’t just have poor credit, they have no credit. They work on their own farm and pay themselves based on whatever they make during harvest time.

Thus, even though some people ballyhoo microfinancing companies for charging upwards of 20% per annum for small loans (as little as PhP1,000), the fact of the matter is, they do much more work and help far more than meets the eye.

The risk, as has been proven, is less than a commercial bank is exposed to as most small lenders do pay back their loans and defaulting is unhonourable and unhelpful to them (since they will probably need a loan again).

Going through microfinancing companies also saves them from the usurious lenders who normally will give a loan and charge not only an exorbitant rate but also demand goods produced at extremely low prices.

A WANTED PAPER TRAIL
The other thing that most people don’t think of also is that microfinancing companies give the erstwhile farmer a paper trail. Suddenly, because there is legitimized lending, he can get a loan from a bank with the good credit rating he has established via the microfinancing company. His paperwork, if it was non-existent before, would also have been sorted out by these social enterprises who won’t charge the farmer for the consultancy and sometimes service provided. And even if they do, the fact is, it’s worth it as no other institution will give him the time of day.

Of course, not all microfinancing companies are helping in the way that they should. Some, although very few, treat the business as a business instead of a social enterprise. I don’t begrudge them that unless they take advantage of the uneducated. In the meantime, I am all for micro-financing as they best way to let those in the poverty cycle get out of it themselves.

Singapore is the best Southeast Asian country to produce and promote social entrepreneurship in the region, according to Mr Mechai Viravaidya, founder of Thailand’s Population and Community Development Association (PDA).

Mr Mechai Viravaidya set up the non-governmental PDA in 1974, when he realised that Thailand’s high population growth could not be sustained given its high poverty levels where many lived on US$2 or less a day.

So he started promoting the use of condoms and other contraception methods in Thailand through PDA. The movement successfully reduced the country’s population growth and also reduced the number of people living under the poverty line.

To help drum in the message of social entrepreneurship, the 2007 Gates Award recipient was joined at the forum by a panel comprising Mr Willie Cheng, director of Lien Centre for Social Innovation; Mr Aaron Maniam, chairman of the National Youth Council Academy’s Advisory Panel; and Ms Elim Chew, SIF governor and 77th Street founder.

Among the forum audience were 62 youths who have ideas for companies that can help address social issues.

The panel further challenged these young people to initiate a national spirit of social entrepreneurship by cultivating an ecosystem of business- and socially-minded youths. In such an environment, young entrepreneurs would be able to share with each other their ideas and resources to set up and sustain what Mr Viravaidya calls businesses for social progress.

Mr Maniam noted that, ultimately, social entrepreneurship is “about drawing from the strengths of all to create a cohesive whole”, adding that “the ability to do this is critical”.

Mr Viravaidya also had an important message for donors, explaining that rather than simply donating money to causes, corporates could achieve sustainable good more effectively by investing in social enterprises set up and run by young people, and helping train future social entrepreneurs.

His final message leaves room for much thought, “Don’t look to the generation that ruled you [for answers]. Look to the next one.”

NOTE: The Ideas for a Better World Forum is a platform for global thought leaders to share their ideas with an international audience. The key areas explored through the forum include health, education, environment, arts and culture, as well as livelihood and business. In facilitating these discussions, SIF hopes to encourage more interest in these focus areas and generate a lively discourse so ideas can be translated into action for a better world.