Kick-off of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit: how entrepreneurship is fit for Asia’s electrifying youth

I’m always a bit wary of politicians speeches, after all, this is their profession, even if really can be far from what they day. This morning however in Kuala Lumpur Convention Center, I was amazed and enthusiastic after Malaysia PM Najib Razak and US Secretary of State John Kerry speeches. Together, they launched the 4th edition of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, after three days when 500 youths gathered to tackle in 3 days the world’s hottest challenges. (Global Youth Startup).

The GES is itself a very interesting creation. Stating that America and the Muslim world had tense relationships, Barack Obama designed 4 years ago in a speech in Cairo the concept of this summit. Every year since then, in Washington, Turkey, Qatar and now Kuala Lumpur, a crazy week gathers local youth and selected young leaders below 25, officials, and the usual suspects (VCs, startupers, big companies).

This 4th summit is gathering more than 4 700 delegates from more than 120 countries, to celebrate entrepreneurship as both a huge potential for emerging countries to be less dependent of resource-based economies and to catalyze the energy – not to mention the anger sometimes – of the youth. With 60% of the population of ASEAN countries under 35, governments need to provide new opportunities. As Kerry and Razak stressed several times, Obama’s speech proved prescient: not even a year later, the “structural opportunity deficit” got the youth to shout their anger and overthrow – when not kill – the established authorities.

And Malaysia is quite an interesting place for launching a business. When the world was discovering the world wide web in the 1990s, said John Kerry, Malaysia had already built CyberJaya, the main part of the country’s Multimedia Super Corridor, officially opened in 1997. More, Malaysia had successful companies launched, such as Air Asia, one of the most popular low-cost air carrier in Asia, and within the ASEAN space, Malaysian startups publicly listed are the most valuable (LINK).

PM Najib Razak then added how South-East Asia, from Kuala Lumpur to Yangon in Myanmar, was about youth and restless cities that just needed better conditions to foster innovation. The role of governments is not so much to “be entrepreneurs”, but to provide the best possible conditions: recalibrating the attitude towards failure, funding research, offering tax incentives, and working towards a greater regional integration. Still in talks, the ASEAN should in the end lead to a unified market of 600 millions consumers.

Last but not least, the US Secretary announced the imminent launch of a partnership with UP Global to support 500 000 new entrepreneurs in 1 000 cities in the world. As he said to conclude, “When you’re free to pursue your own ideas, it’s good for you, for your country, and for the rest of the world. The USA want to be your partner”

Martin Pasquier for Agence Tesla, Knowtex and Innovation Factory

Check out our report on Malaysia innovation ecosystem on Slideshare too