MANAMA: Economic growth is driven by entrepreneurship, as well as by continuous economic diversification, increasing trade, industrial upgrading and technological innovation.
Hiroshi Kuniyoshi, Deputy to the Director General United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in his keynote address at the three-day World Entrepreneurs Forum 2017 opens in Manama on Tuesday said the Forum has been organized with the goal of developing partnerships between entrepreneurs and sharing international best practices and successes on entrepreneurship and innovation.
The theme of the Forum, “Achieving the SDGs through Promoting Entrepreneurship and Innovation”, highlights the extreme importance of entrepreneurship and innovation in achieving sustainable development worldwide.
He thanked the Chief guest Shaikh Salman bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, Advisor to His Royal Highness, the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bahrain.
The UNIDO World Entrepreneurs Investment Forum 2017, is taking place under the patronage of His Royal Highness, Prince Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa, the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bahrain.
The Forum’s deliberations focus around fostering entrepreneurship and innovation, and promoting impact investment, have been at the forefront of UNIDO’s work in developing countries and economies in transition for many years.
“This is more important today than ever before, as we all work together worldwide towards achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The role of impact investment and innovation is further highlighted by the Sustainable Development Goals, and especially in Goal 9, which seeks to “build resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.”
The UNIDO ITPO Network has contributed to reducing development imbalances by brokering investment and technology agreements and fostering entrepreneurship in developing countries and economies in transition for over 40 years now. This worldwide Network currently includes offices in the Kingdom of Bahrain, two offices in China – Beijing and Shanghai, and offices in Germany, Italy, Japan, Nigeria, the Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation. The Kingdom of Bahrain has been UNIDO’s trusted partner for many years, and the opening of ITPO Bahrain in 1996 was an important building block to this longstanding and strong relationship.
ITPO Bahrain and the Government of the Kingdom of Bahrain have worked together on developing innovative programmes in the areas of investment promotion and economic empowerment of youth and women through entrepreneurship development and incubation systems. ITPO Bahrain’s Entrepreneurship Development and Investment Promotion Programme, EDIP, started as an initiative to foster enterprise development for investment, thus far generating over 16,000 jobs and US$2 billion in investment. Currently implemented in 52 countries, the EDIP Programme has changed the lives of countless entrepreneurs worldwide who can now champion their own destinies.
In addition to UNIDO’s ITPO Network,
UNIDO also assists entrepreneurs and small and medium enterprises through our Subcontracting and Partnership Exchanges. These exchanges aim to help local enterprises to successfully meet the challenges of globalization and to take advantage of the emerging opportunities that evolve from industrial subcontracting, outsourcing and supply chain opportunities.
“During the First World Entrepreneurs Investment Forum in 2015, the Manama Declaration on Entrepreneurship and Development was adopted to outline a set of recommendations derived from the two days of deliberations and discussions held among the 85 experts and 650 entrepreneurs from 80 countries, who participated in the Forum on Entrepreneurship and Investment for Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development, held from 19 to 21 January 2015. The importance of the Manama Declaration was further signified by its circulation during the 2015 United Nations General Assembly.
“Today, we are here to continue the work that was outlined for us in the Manama Declaration, which calls upon governments, the private sector, academia, civil society and international organizations to cooperate in facilitating the empowerment of entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized enterprises around the world. It asks us to take a coordinated and inclusive approach in promoting entrepreneurship involving all stakeholders, while noting initiatives of civil society, academia and the private sector as important drivers of entrepreneurship. Furthermore, the Declaration calls for cooperation in support of technology exchange and transfer, innovation and capacity-building programmes for promoting entrepreneurship. Let these important areas of cooperation guide our discussions today and throughout the Forum.
“I truly believe that together, through ITPO Bahrain and our many other areas of cooperation, UNIDO and the Kingdom of Bahrain can come closer to achieving inclusive and sustainable industrial development worldwide. UNIDO is proud to be your partner, and to provide support in our common efforts to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. I further wish to thank all of you here today to participate in the important event. I wish the Forum every success.”
