Trader, not entrepreneur - Letter

Last week’s The Sunday Financial Times had a front page photo under the heading "Beating the fuel crisis" in which the young importer of cycles from Kurunegala is described as a "young entrepreneur". I think he is anything but an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur is someone who uses his entrepreneurship to bring the other factors of production (land, labour and capital) to "produce" a good or service.

Importing second hand cycles does not qualify him to be an "entrepreneur". He is engaged in buying and selling. He could be best described as a "young trader from Kurunegala".

By Janaka R. Samarakone, Battaramulla.