The United States of America supports the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) annually because it wants countries across the world to prosper.
Addressing a group of foreign journalists at the Hague, the Netherlands, Peter Hoekstra, U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands, said the U.S placed value on entrepreneurship as it was one easy way of growing economies, reducing unemployment and creating wealth.
“The United States wants the rest of the world to be successful,” he said.
Hoekstra said the U.S. was keen to connect young and vibrant entrepreneurs with investors to enable them scale their businesses and take new ideas back to their countries.
The GES aims to showcase inspiring entrepreneurs and investors from around the world, creating new opportunities for investment, partnership, and collaboration. It connects entrepreneurs and investors with international counterparts to form lasting relationships, and highlight entrepreneurship as means to address some of the most intractable global challenges. The summit typically includes a wide range of workshops, panels, ignite talks, pitch competitions, mentoring, and networking sessions aimed to give participants tailored opportunities to gain skill and relationships that will help their ventures grow.
This year’s summit was held at the Hague between June 3 and 5, with 1,000 entrepreneurs from 140 countries and 300 investors attending. It was the first time the summit would be held in the European Union.
Hoekstra said it was held in Europe to reinforce to the EU how “important our relationship with them is.”
“The EU is promoting the idea of entrepreneurship, the values and the ideas,” he said.
The Netherlands was picked as the co-host for the GES this year. Independent checks show that the country is the third-largest direct foreign investor in the United States. The Dutch-American trade and investment relationship is said to be supporting close to 625,000 American jobs with Texas, California and Pennsylvania benefiting most.
Speaking on why the Netherlands was picked as the co-host this year, the ambassador explained that the U.S and the Netherlands had always had good trade relations and were important partners on many fronts.
“The Dutch have been phenomenal in what we do,” he said.
Earlier at the opening reception of the GES, Michael Pompeo, United States secretary of state, had said that his country would continue to create the right environment for entrepreneurs.
“People like you here you are a living proof that innovation is driven by competition and not by government,” he told about 1,000 entrepreneur-participants.
He said government leaders could bring value to entrepreneurs only if they would create the necessary environment for growth.
For Pompeo, government must protect the physical and intellectual properties, saying that property rights were the bedrock of successful economies.
He added that entrepreneurs needed the rule of law and the basic predicable environment to unleash their potential.
Odinaka Anudu
