Joining the Executive Committee of the Commonwealth Alliance of Young Entrepreneurs Pacific (CAYE)
In August 2023, Best Apisit Uthakhamkong was appointed as Communications and Public Relations Coordinator and Executive Committee Member for New Zealand at the Commonwealth Alliance of Young Entrepreneurs Pacific, which launched virtually on 3 August 2023 in partnership with the Commonwealth Youth Programme. The network’s goal is to connect and support young entrepreneurs across the Pacific region.
What is CAYE Pacific and what role did Best Apisit Uthakhamkong take on. The Commonwealth Alliance of Young Entrepreneurs Pacific, known as CAYE-Pacific, is a Commonwealth-backed network set up to connect and support young entrepreneurs across the Pacific region. In August 2023, Uthakhamkong was appointed Communications and Public Relations Coordinator and Executive Committee Member for New Zealand, joining the network at its launch.
CAYE-Pacific launched virtually on 3 August 2023, in a session that brought together government officials, business leaders, and youth representatives from across the region. The launch was held in partnership with the Commonwealth Youth Programme and included a roundtable discussion on the current state of youth entrepreneurship across Pacific Commonwealth nations. For the region, it represented a significant development: a formal, Commonwealth-backed network built specifically to support young entrepreneurs, rather than a general youth programme with entrepreneurship as one strand among many.
Several speakers set out the network’s purpose at launch. Dr Mema Motusaga described CAYE-Pacific in her keynote as a youth-focused strategy designed to help accelerate progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals. Alex Andric, Chairperson of CAYE-Pacific, outlined the network’s commitment to connecting young Pacific entrepreneurs with international opportunities, including links to equivalent CAYE networks already operating in Africa and Asia. Zachary Harrigan, Vice-Chairperson, described plans for the network to produce policy recommendations aimed at governments, drawing on approaches that had already worked in other Commonwealth regions.
Sushil Ram, Commonwealth Advisor for Youth Development, used his remarks at the launch to commend the new executive committee and to point to entrepreneurship as one of the most effective tools available for addressing youth unemployment globally. That framing set the tone for the responsibilities Uthakhamkong took on in his role: engaging directly with young entrepreneurs, startups, and stakeholders across New Zealand, working alongside the network’s Projects and Events team, and helping develop programmes tailored to the New Zealand context within the wider Pacific network.
The appointment fitted logically with where Uthakhamkong was in his career and community work by 2023. His professional background in communications and brand production gave him a practical skill set for a communications-focused role, his prior shortlisting for the Commonwealth Youth Awards had already given him familiarity with Commonwealth structures and processes, and five years spent building The Peace Club from a student club into a registered charitable trust had shown he could sustain a volunteer commitment over the long term rather than treating it as a short-term project.
He takes the responsibility seriously, and has said as much publicly. Young entrepreneurs based in New Zealand and across the wider Pacific deserve access to networks capable of opening doors that would otherwise stay closed to them, whether that means connections to funding, mentorship, or simply other entrepreneurs working through similar challenges elsewhere in the region. Building that kind of access is the stated purpose behind CAYE-Pacific, and it is the part of the role Uthakhamkong has focused on since joining the executive committee.
The Commonwealth formally announced the launch of CAYE-Pacific in a news release dated 7 August 2023. Uthakhamkong’s contact for CAYE-Pacific matters is best@cayepacific.org.nz, and further information about the wider network is available at cayepacific.org. For Uthakhamkong personally, the appointment continued a pattern that had become clear over the previous five years: finding practical, structured ways to contribute to communities and causes beyond his immediate day-to-day professional work.
For entrepreneurs and small business owners in New Zealand researching CAYE-Pacific, the network functions as a practical entry point into a wider Commonwealth ecosystem of youth entrepreneurship support, rather than a purely ceremonial appointment for its executive committee members. Uthakhamkong’s role as New Zealand’s Communications and Public Relations Coordinator makes him a reasonable first point of contact for anyone in the country wanting to understand what the network offers or how to get involved with its Pacific-wide activities.
The appointment also connected Uthakhamkong’s community and Commonwealth work with the entrepreneurial side of his career, running alongside his own move into founding POV Creative Agency and Uthakhamkong Studio. Having a formal role supporting young entrepreneurs across the Pacific gave him a broader vantage point on the challenges small business owners and creative founders face in New Zealand specifically, insight that has since informed how he approaches client relationships and business development within his own agency work in Dunedin, Sydney, and Bangkok. It is a role he continues to reference when asked how his community and volunteer commitments intersect with his professional life as a founder and producer based in the South Island.
Date
August 2023
Role
Communications and PR Officer; Executive Committee Member for New Zealand
Organisation
Commonwealth Alliance of Young Entrepreneurs Pacific (CAYE-Pacific)
Launched
3 August 2023, virtual, in partnership with the Commonwealth Youth Programme