The following statement was given today in the House of Assembly by the Honourable Derrick Dalley, Minister of Business:

SIFE Memorial Triumphs in National Competition

I rise to congratulate a talented group of Memorial University students on being named the 2011 Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) national champions in Toronto on May 10. The competition took place during the Advancing Canadian Entrepreneurship (ACE) National Exposition and students performed for a panel of judges comprising 40 top Canadian CEOs.

This annual competition brings together the country’s brightest university and college students, academic professionals and top Canadian business leaders. The SIFE Memorial team stood victorious because of their dedication to arming Canadian Forces personnel and student entrepreneurs with the tools and assistance needed to thrive as business owners, as well as teaching high school students and seniors vital financial education.

Memorial’s award-winning presentation team consisted of eight students from Newfoundland and Labrador: Danielle Seward, Nick Hounsell, Alexandra States, Rena Kufudi, Rebecca Aylward, Bryan Glavine, David Feehan and Jacob Pratt.

As national winners, the SIFE Memorial Team will head to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in October to compete for the SIFE World Cup.

The Department of Business is focused on attracting inward investment to Newfoundland and Labrador. We develop and execute marketing campaigns designed to attract progressive business investments in diverse sectors like aerospace and defence, ocean technology, ICT and oil and gas. One of our key selling propositions is the fact that our province is powered by people with knowledge, skills, ideas and experience; attributes strongly displayed by this winning group of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians.

Newfoundland and Labrador is increasingly recognized as a desirable place in which to live, work and invest. We continue to show the rest of the country and the rest of the world that Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are clever and creative people who thrive in competition and we are winners academically, economically and culturally.

I ask all members to join me in congratulating the SIFE Memorial Team and wish them success in Malaysia.

2011 05 26             1:45 p.m.