I recently attended the G20YEA (Youth Entrepreneurship Alliance) Summit in Sydney http://www.g20yea.com/en/summit/ It was an exciting, high energy event attended by over 400 delegates from around the globe representing the G20 countries.
It became clear that youth entrepreneurship is very much on the agenda of many governments around the globe, including Australia. With youth unemployment spiralling out of control, and traditional employment growth stagnated, entrepreneurship is seen as a key ingredient for addressing the problem. Critically, across the G20 70% of job growth is coming from the SME sector, particularly young SMEs.
Helen Clark, now Administrator of the UN Development Program, presented a passionate speech emphasizing the size of the problem on a global scale. Senator Ryan confirmed Australia’s commitment to this agenda.
I was invited to participate in a panel session on culture, equality and youth entrepreneurship. I presented some data from our GEM (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor) study that was well received.
The event concluded with a signed communique to the G20 Leaders Summit:
“The young entrepreneurs of the world gathered at the Sydney G20 YEA Summit support the Australian G20 priorities on private sector led growth and greater resilience of the world economy. We call on the G20 Leaders, Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors to focus on entrepreneurship and agree to implement policies, legislation and incentives for ecosystems that support start-ups and sustainable high growth entrepreneurial SMEs, young entrepreneurs and enhance private sector led growth.”
The communique went on to outline key priorities across 9 pillars of the entrepreneurship ecosystem. Action plans for each national team.
Congratulations to Jeremy Liddle and Aaron McNeilly for organizing such an outstanding event.