The Organization of American States (OAS) seeks corporate investors for the development of a multi-national project to provide business training and development for young people throughout the Caribbean and the Americas. The OAS invites your consideration and support of this unique market expansion opportunity provided by the Young Americas Business Trust.

One aim of the OAS is to promote economic and social stability in the Americas. The Organization achieves this goal by providing training, technical assistance, and educational programs focused on increasing employment, stimulating economic development, and improving the quality of life for people in the thirty-four member countries of the Americas. Since young people under age thirty represent as much as 60% of the population of these nations, efforts to increase their business and employment skills have a significant impact.

Support for these programs has historically come from the OAS and its member nations. In the Young Americas Business Trust, the OAS is offering an opportunity for the private sector to become stronger partners in the future of the Americas. This will benefit participating nations and provide additional opportunities for business growth.

The Young Americas Business Trust sponsors programs designed to train and develop skilled and semi-skilled workers from a nation's employable youth, encourage entrepreneurial initiatives that will create or support employment, and give special emphasis to technology as part of this process. In recent years the nations of the Caribbean and the Americas have realized strong economic growth; however, future growth will depend upon the development of a stable, educated, enterprising workforce for businesses to realize opportunities in both the short and long-terms.

The Young Americas Business Trust will build on the successful record of the OAS in the field of education and development, including the design of business skills training and microenterprise programs for young people in particular. The Trust's phase-one activities will focus on the Greater Caribbean Region. In subsequent phases, the Trust will broaden its scope to encompass, ultimately, all of the Americas.

New Business Opportunities

For current and future marketers and business developers to this region, the economic growth rate has been among the highest in the wolrd

. Recent sample growth indicators include:

1. An Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) report indicating investment rose in the region from $21 billion to $30 billion in the two years, 1995 - 96.
2. The recent announcement by a major fast food retailer to invest $1 billion in the next three years to open 2,000 new stores in the region; and,
3. The Northern Business Information News announcement that cellular communications in the region are expected to grow by 16 percent per year reaching an estimated $39 billion by the year 2000.

Training the Labor Force

The island and other developing economies are moving from their traditional agricultural base to tourism and trade. As such, the Trust's activity around these business niches which, with technology and training, are essential elements to the overall future development of all sectors of the economic infrastructure.

Achieving sustained economic growth will depend in large part on developing the potential of the local labor forces, both as employees and employers. Many of the region's countries have a majority of their populations under thirty years of age, representing large labor pools of skilled and unskilled workers. Unemployment and underemployment are serious concerns in the region due, not only to the economic impact this can have, but also to the resulting social deterioration that can accompany such distress. Unemployment for persons ages 17 - 30 averages 33% across the region and as high as 60% in some countries. The focus of the Young Americas Business Trust is the development of this labor force and its integration within the service industries dealing with trade, tourism, technology and training.

Local Business Development

Employment creation through enterprise development is now recognized as a primary engine for future economic growth in the region as the formal wage sector s can no longer absorb the flood of new graduates of local school systems each year. In response, another equally important focus of the Young Americas Business Trust is the development of entrepreneurial skills and small business enterprises. These are essential steps to providing employment, economich growth and stability in the region.