ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - The Alaska Federation of Natives has launched a program aimed at promoting entrepreneurial ideas in the Bush.
The Alaska Marketplace, based on an international program run by the World Bank, proposes to set up a competition for clever new ideas, help massage the better ones into shape, and then award cash to the best ones to get started.
Similar programs around the world helped recycle ritual-cleansing water from mosques in Yemen, eradicate golden snails from rice patches in the Philippines and keep elephants out of crops in Africa.
"We think there's a lot of good ideas out in our communities," said AFN president Julie Kitka. "They just need to be nurtured."
With financial backing from the state and private industry, including BP and Conoco Phillips, AFN is opening the contest to any Alaska entrepreneur, Native or non-Native, individual or group.
Preference will be given to residents of rural communities. The goal, founders say, is to draw upon rural Alaska traditions, including the improvisational ingenuity of its people.
Alaska Marketplace officials said as many as 20 winners will be chosen, with winners getting a share of $200,000 in seed money and publicity.
The theme this year is "Culture and Development." Future years will adopt different themes, Kitka said at the AFN convention in Fairbanks.
Judges will evaluate proposals based on sustainability, profitability, innovation, poverty reduction, job creation, and integration of Alaska's cultural heritage.
The program is based on the international Development Marketplace, set up by the World Bank in 61 developing countries as a grass roots counterbalance to its funding of big-ticket dams and highways.
Proposals are due by Dec. 15. Finalists will be chosen Feb. 1, with winners picked after a jury presentation April 6 and 7.
http://www.alaskamarketplace.org
