The president of Bermuda's newest television station has suggested that young people's creative talents should be honed and directed into entrepreneurial enterprises.

Fresh Creations president and executive producer Elmore Warren was speaking at the Hamilton Rotary Club luncheon Tuesday when he told the audience that if young people wanted to be creative then they should also be supported.

Mr. Warren said: "Artist Carole Holding has used not only her artistic skills, but also her entrepreneurial skills and has been successful. The only thing that Bermuda has is intellectual property."

He suggested that perhaps young people who are inventors needed an infrastructure to support them.

"Instead of just telling kids to go off to university to get a good job, perhaps we should be suggesting to them that they can not only go to university to hone their skills, but to come back to the Island and start a business in whatever they have studied," said Mr. Warren.

"Look at Bill Gates, he had an idea and now he is one of the richest men in the world. Bermuda needs to encourage the young people to be creative in whatever they want to do or become."

Mr. Warren suggested that young people needed to have an infrastructure in place to support ideas.

He said: "Right now the Island depends solely on international business and tourism, but what if people with ideas were able to start smaller lucrative companies."

He pointed out that Bermuda only uses 15 to 25 percent of the available bandwidth and that so much could be done for entrepreneurs on the Island using the Internet.

He spoke about creative people being discouraged because they were unable to express themselves or in many cases to not be able to make a living from their talents.

He suggested: "Ideas needed to be addressed so that they can develop their skills and earn a living."