Dr Jeff Cornwall

Evidence of the spread of entrepreneurship in the global economy can be found in the latest Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report.

GEM 2009 ranked Tonga 10th overall, out of the 54 countries surveyed.

However, persistent cultural attitudes about an entrepreneurial career path are evident in these findings.  Tonga ranked 1st in terms of “Fear of Failure rate”, which is the measure of the percentage of the population with positive perceived opportunities who indicated that fear of failure would prevent them from setting up a business.

Even with the high fear of failure, Tonga ranked 4th; “early-stage entrepreneurship activity rate” – 10th; new business ownership rate- 15th; overall entrepreneurial activities rate- 16th. But in terms of “established business ownership”, Tonga ranked 49th indicating an inability to sustain growth and suggesting a lack of understanding of entrepreneurship at a later stage.

The GEM Report on Tonga also identified 17 National Policy areas concerning factors constraining entrepreneurial activity in Tonga and it goes to make specific recommendations on what can be done by Government and other support institutions to ease those constraints.

Under “Education and Training”, GEM Tonga states, “Lack of education and training represents a major concern. This situation is the result of insufficient understanding of business as a concept. It can also be attributed to: lack of business skill training; the absence of business studies from both primary and secondary school systems; and an ill-equipped work force.” It goes on to recommend amongst other things, the introduction of business studies and skills into the primary and secondary school curriculum.