VOICE TWO:

In South Africa, Mthuli Ncube is the director of the entrepreneurship institute at the University of the Vitwatersrand. He says the African continent does not have enough entrepreneurs who are prepared to take risks. However, the most successful black entrepreneur in South Africa, Richard Maponya, has been taking risks for a long time to build successful businesses. Now in his eighties, Mister Maponya recently opened a huge shopping center in Soweto, near the city of Johannesburg.

Donald Trump is one of America's most successful property developers. He says entrepreneurs must think big and take action. He says they also must study new information, learn to negotiate and enjoy competition.

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VOICE ONE:

Muhammad Yunus

In many developing countries, small loans are known as micro-credit or micro-financing. They have helped entrepreneurs get the money they need to start a business. Special attention is now being given to female entrepreneurs. They have had to beat many cultural barriers to get financing.

In Bangladesh, the Grameen Bank lends small amounts of money, mainly to women. And almost all of these small business loans are repaid. Grameen was the first bank in the developing world to lend money to poor people who wanted to be entrepreneurs. Muhammad Yunus started the Grameen Bank. He and the bank won the Nobel Peace Prize in two thousand six.

VOICE TWO:

Grameen's micro-financing has expanded the idea of entrepreneurship to many people. For them, entrepreneurship is about raising chickens and cows or making clothes to help feed their families. For example, Margaret Okoth sells food at a market in Nairobi, Kenya. She is using low-interest micro-loans from an organization in her village.

Margaret Okoth

MARGARET OKOTH: "[The cooperative] has recently increased its limit so that you can borrow eighty thousand [shillings]. And if you take out that big a loan you'll really see your business grow."

Margaret Okoth's area at the market was destroyed in violence after the Kenyan election. But loans permitted her to rebuild. The money also helped her balance her business with her other job, as a wife and mother of twelve children.

VOICE ONE:

Now, large lenders like the World Bank are supporting the ideas of the Grameen Bank in discussions with developing countries. Dahlia Khalifa is a business expert at the World Bank's International Finance Corporation. She says getting the necessary financing is the biggest barrier for female entrepreneurs in African countries. But she says discrimination against women goes even further. In many places, women are not permitted to sign an agreement or to represent themselves in court.

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VOICE TWO:

Many countries have policies that make it hard for entrepreneurs to start businesses. In Russia, for example, people often have to make secret payments to government officials to influence their decisions on business permits. Other entrepreneurs say they have to deal with government processes that are slow and difficult.

Alexei Protsky has a chemical company. He says he has to deal with unnecessary rules and reporting requirements. He says dealing with too much paperwork means a loss of time and reduction in productivity for his company.

VOICE ONE:

Every year, the World Bank rates countries on the ease of starting a business. The Bank examines the processes involved in getting permits, getting credit, paying taxes and enforcing agreements. World Bank specialist Dahlia Khalifa says some governments are reforming and changing their business laws. The World Bank said Egypt was the top reformer last year, followed by Croatia, Ghana, Macedonia and Georgia. The bank says Egypt reduced the amount of money needed to start a business. Egypt also eased rules that used to delay building permits.

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VOICE TWO:

Schools and universities around the world are teaching entrepreneurship. For example, in China and India, thousands of people are attending graduate schools of business where entrepreneurship is taught.

Such programs in the developing world are influenced by those in the United States. At some American universities, business students are required to start a business before they complete their study program.

Elaine Allen teaches entrepreneurship at Babson College in Boston, Massachusetts. She says she meets with groups of college students before they learn about financial rules. The groups are given two thousand dollars and told to start a business.

At the end of the year, she says, almost all of them make a profit. Often the profits are as much as fifty or sixty thousand dollars. They donate this money to non-profit organizations. These students are on their way to becoming entrepreneurs of the future.

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VOICE ONE:

This program was written by Barry Wood and adapted by Shelley Gollust. Our producer was Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Barbara Klein. You can download audio and read scripts on our Web site, ChinaVOA.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

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