Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.america.gov/st/business-english/20009/november/20091125122209esnamfuak0.5765345.html
Topics: Opportunity, Business & Trade, East Asia and the Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, South & Central Asia
Keywords: entrepreneurship, Muslims, Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship
25 November 2009
Entrepreneurs from Muslim World Sought for Washington Summit
The 2010 summit follows up on President Obama’s pledge in Cairo to find ways to deepen ties between the U.S. and the Muslim world.
By Stephen Kaufman
Staff Writer
Washington — Approximately 150 entrepreneurs from Muslim-majority countries and Muslim communities around the world will be invited to a two-day summit in Washington in spring 2010 to meet with their peers and U.S. officials to explore areas of partnership and ways to drive economic and social innovation.
Deputy Secretary of Commerce Dennis Hightower told reporters at Washington’s Foreign Press Center November 23 that the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship is a “direct follow-up” from President Obama’s June 4 commitment in Cairo to “identify how we can deepen ties between the business leaders, foundations and social entrepreneurs in the U.S. and Muslim communities around the world.”
The 150 delegates can be nominated “by businesses, governments, academic institutions, [and] social entrepreneurship institutions” throughout the world’s Muslim communities and Muslim-majority countries. “Or you can self-nominate,” Hightower said. Non-Muslims in Muslim-majority countries are also encouraged to apply.
The Obama administration views the summit as “an unprecedented historical opportunity both to support and highlight the leaders and drivers of economic and social innovation” and to “really craft a new model for a new basis for relationships based on mutual respect and partnership around common challenges,” Hightower said.
The goal is to enhance partnerships that would “link capital, business development, [and] market access,” enabling entrepreneurs to build “high-growth and high-impact ventures,” as well as continue to look at ways to sustain the existing U.S. focus on other types of partnership programs.
Hightower reflected on his career in which he opened businesses in Kuwait, Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru, Istanbul, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, and elsewhere in the Middle East region.
The underlying rationale driving his ventures was determined by “what is going to be mutually beneficial” in terms of job creation in those countries along with what would be good for a U.S. company. Both benefits, he said are “equally compelling.”
“The unifying theme of how we are more alike is certainly at the core of why this makes sense now,” Hightower said. At the end of the day, “good business is good business.”
U.S. embassies and consulates in the countries where the delegates will likely be coming from have been told about the summit and will be processing the visas and other paperwork necessary for the 150 participants to come to Washington.
Along with the Department of Commerce and its Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development will be playing key roles in implementing the summit.
There is a broad and diverse platform from which to get “the best possible range of participation,” Hightower said. “You just never know where the next best or good idea is going to come from.”
More information, including a link to a nomination form that can be submitted online, can be found at the summit’s Web site. The deadline for nominations is November 30.
http://www.entrepreneurship.gov/summit/
http://www.entrepreneurship.gov/summit/nomination.aspx
#
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.entrepreneurship.gov/summit/summitoverview.html
Summit Overview
In his June “A New Beginning” speech in Cairo, President Obama announced that the U.S. will host a Summit on Entrepreneurship to identify how we can deepen ties between business leaders, foundations, and social entrepreneurs in the United States and Muslim communities around the world. The Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship, which will be held in Washington, DC over two days in the first quarter of 2010, follows through on President Obama’s commitment. It represents an opportunity to highlight and support business and social entrepreneurship in Muslim-majority countries (MMC), including their minority populations, and Muslim communities around the world.
Through this Summit, the United States seeks both to join existing efforts and inspire new efforts to promote entrepreneurship and innovation in Muslim-majority countries and Muslim communities around the world. Delegates will include 150 participants from around the world who will represent their home countries, regions, sectors, and communities at the Summit. Delegates may self nominate or be nominated by others.
Successful entrepreneurs, investors, academics, and leaders of entrepreneurship networks, non-profits, foundations, and businesses who are invested in promoting business or social entrepreneurship in Muslim communities would be excellent delegates and are encouraged to apply.
There will be no preference given to self-nominations or outside nominations. However, letters of support are strongly encouraged to supplement a self-nomination.
The nomination deadline is November 30, 2009.