PRESS CONFERENCE ON GLOBAL SUMMIT FOR YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS
Press Briefing
PRESS CONFERENCE ON GLOBAL SUMMIT FOR YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS
20000829Sponsors and participants in the Seventh Global Summit for Young Entrepreneurs held a Headquarters press conference this morning. The Summit, meeting at the World Trade Center from 28 August to 1 September, has brought together 350 young entrepreneurs from 97 countries.
The Summit is sponsored by the Institute for Leadership Development, a United Nations global partnership institute involving governments, multinational corporations and United Nations agencies; the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Participating in the press conference were: Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director of UNIFEM; Sujit Chowdhury, Secretary-General of the Summit and Executive Director of the Institute; Ron Jamieson, Senior Vice President, Bank of Montreal; and Caroline Awuor Agwanda, founder of Hyacinth Ornaments Production Enterprise (HOPE) of Kenya.
Opening the press conference, Ms. Heyzer said the emphasis of the Summit was the creation of a strategic partnership of civil society, youth and the private sector. Such a partnership would help build a more inclusive global market, which would include young women. As such, UNIFEM had bought 29 entrepreneurs from all over the world, representing viable enterprises that had used, in many cases, new information technology.
Mr. Chowdhury said the Summit came on the eve of the Millennium Summit and complemented Secretary-General Kofi Annans global compact. The Summit took advantage of convergence, in this case bringing together institutions, multilateral agencies, governments and leading private sector firms from around the world to engage in a process that had never been done before. It was also truly interactive - fully wired - to provide opportunities to those who otherwise would not have been able to connect or participate.
Reviewing some of the highlights of the Summit, he said that, above and beyond specific training programmes, such as The Road to an IPO, one question was how the Summit could assist entrepreneurs from developing countries to take advantage of mega-trends. In that way they, too, could become part of that economic globalization in a much more responsible way. Some of the other training programmes, for example, dealt with access to venture capital, access to global markets and international joint venture opportunities. Throughout the Summit there are lets make a deal sessions - a mechanism to help entrepreneurs engage in a serious way to find opportunities to form joint ventures.
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Global Summit Conference - 2 - 29 August 2000
Continuing, he said there was also an e-summit, the purpose of which was to allow at least 3,000 entrepreneurs in seven different countries to connect to the Summit. Further, for the first time, a virtual trade show had been organized and various tool kits would be launched -- including the International Joint Venture Opportunity CD ROM and Online Programme. In that way, entrepreneurs could learn everything they needed to know about forming a joint venture. Finally, he said, the Summit was asking the Secretary-General to dedicate a day - a United Nations Day for Entrepreneurs or Young Entrepreneurs.
Ms. Heyzer added that another important message of the Summit was the role of corporations in the issue of shared wealth and shared prosperity. In a world growing more and more complex, governments alone were not the only stakeholders responsible for progress. Increasingly, while governments made the commitments at United Nations conferences, the private sector must be brought in to help meet those goals. Further, while governments and civil society had negotiated the norms incorporated in charters and conventions, it was extremely important to bring the private sector in, so that those norms would be incorporated into management and operational practices. The social accountability of business was a major concern of the Summit.
Addressing the role of the private sector, Mr. Jamieson said he had been involved in the process for three years and was really excited by it. When was the last time you saw an excited banker? he asked. It was exciting to see young people coming together from all over the world, breaking down barriers - colour barriers and trade barriers. His own bank and all major corporations around the globe should sit up and take notice, because this is the corporate future. The sooner such young people were assisted in making joint ventures and going forward with their own businesses, the quicker existing barriers would be broken down.
Representing all young women entrepreneurs participating in the Summit, Ms. Agwanda said she had founded HOPE to create an awareness among Kenyans that the water hyacinth was not harmful, but useful, by making products and profits from it. She also hoped to provide an example for poor, discouraged people, widows, displaced persons and others - to give them an alternative option of how to get income. She had now been in business for two and a half years. She didnt have capital when she started, but she had a skill. She tried to be aggressive and innovative, and she had succeeded. Now, it was a role model for Kenyans. In October, she would be putting the products on a Web site and by the end of December she hoped to employ 24 people. She was using the Summit to expand in international markets and continue growth.
Ms. Hyzer added that a second component of economic globalization was trade. There had been a lot of emphasis on the idea that, if there was to be trade for development, better market access for poor countries was needed. One way of doing that was to have viable enterprises that had some market access and were able to build on local economies. HOPE was an example of that. The Summit was a way to build the strategic partnerships necessary for such global market access.
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