AWAZ June 5th 2009
PSYBT HOSTS ROYAL VISIT BY PRINCE CHARLES IN SUPPORT OF ASIAN BUSINESS COMMUNITY
By Raj Lalli Gill
HRH Prince Charles, Duke of Rothesay, dropped by The Prince's Scottish Youth Business Trust offices on the 2nd of this month to host a special event for the Asian business community in Scotland.
HRH met with senior representatives from his Charities PSYBT, the Prince's Trust Scotland (PTS), and Scottish Business in the Community as well as members of Scotland's Asian business community to hear about their experiences of running successful businesses in Scotland.
Entrepreneur Charan Gill, owner of Harlequin in Glasgow; Saftar Sarwar executive of Barclays Wealth; Dr Rabinder Buttar, CEO of ClinTec International Group in Glasgow; and Asian representatives from Ethnic Minority Glasgow, Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce and Strathclyde Police were amongst those who were introduced to HRH during the one and a half hour long visit.
HRH spent time talking with several young people from a variety of PTS Programmes and PSYBT supported businesses. They shared their experiences of what it is to be a young Asian and talk on issues, such as support networks, barriers to enterprise, employment and opportunities.
One young man in particular artist Frank To, caught the Prince's eye as Frank had brought a few of his paintings which were on display.
The Prince spent five minutes with Frank discussing his art, he even gave Frank some advice, "avoid the elephant trap," were the Prince's words of wisdom.
Many an artist has gone down the path of ruin, due to drink or drugs.
In the creative world it is easily done.
No fear here, Frank is five steps ahead of his peers.
He has even secured Patrick Stewart- Star Trek actor- as one of his most prized clients.
Patrick has five of Frank's paintings in his collections which he displays in his various homes around the world.
Frank first came to Patrick's attention, when Frank was studying for his undergraduate degree at the University of Huddersfield, Stewart was the University's chancellor.
He enjoyed Frank's work so much that he put his hand in his pocket and dug deep, purchasing five of the young artist's works, which no doubt will double or triple in value in coming years.
Like Frank says, "In the current climate there's no point of investing in the usual stalwarts, such as property or stocks it's too much of a risk, these days your money is a lot safer if you invest in a good piece of art."
Frank approached PSYBT because he wanted to put his years of training to the test.
"I asked myself what would be the point of all that studying if I wasn't going to give it a go and become a full time painter."
Tipped for the top in the lifestyle magazine, Homes and Interiors Scotland- which recently selected its top five art graduates in Scotland- Frank is now hopeful that, with London now taking notice, so might New York.
Explaining the purpose of the Prince's visit, Mark Strudwick, PSYBT chief executive said, "One of the key objectives for hosting this meeting with the Asian business community in Scotland is to identify what more can be done, both individually and collectively by the Prince's Charities in Scotland to support young people, particularly those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds, to improve their employment and business opportunities.
"By involving a wide cross- section of the Asian business community in Scotland, we hope to identify the key challenges, increase potential for support and mentoring and broaden everyone's knowledge about the wider issues and generate ideas that will address them."
As Scotland's leading enterprising youth charity, PSYBT is committed to addressing barriers to employment for young people and ethnic minorities in Scotland.
In 2006 PSYBT supported the first Young Scotland Muslim Conference to be hosted in this country and sponsored an Asian Business Awards in 2008.
While the number of ethnic minorities working and living in Scotland is significantly lower than in many parts of England [2% in the last Census conducted in 2001 as compared to 8%? In England]. The Asian Business Community has a sound base and strong aspirations in Scotland.
Approximately 8% of PSYBT- supported businesses are from ethnic minorities, which reflects the size of the ethnic minority population in the UK, and the success of PSYBT's outreach programme.
This year commemorates the twentieth anniversary of PSYBT.
Since it was formally constituted in 1989, PSYBT has supported some 11,000 individuals to start almost 9000 businesses and provided £31.7 million in funding alongside a whole package of other assistance tailored to the needs of each individual.
Last year PSYBT invested £2 million in 665 young people involved in 559 businesses and the average PSYBT investment per business during financial year 2007/08 was £3203.