Global Entrepreneurship Summit underway in Silicon Valley

SILICON VALLEY

Nearly 1,000 delegates, including Kenyan entrepreneurs, are meeting in Silicon Valley, California, in the United States for the seventh Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES).

The three-day summit has brought together about 300 investors and 700 budding entrepreneurs from 170 countries.

Some of the renowned business moguls attending the annual event include Brian Chesky, founder of Airbnb, an online rental service that enables people to list and rent holiday homes, Sheila Johnson, the first African-American woman to be an owner or partner in three professional sports franchises, as well as Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick.

A host of about 11 Kenyan entrepreneurs were also selected to participate in this year’s conference.

Speaking at the opening ceremony Thursday, US Secretary of State John Kerry called on the private sector to create business ideas that can address the current global challenges of violent extremism, climate change and corruption, which he said are interconnected.

In country after country — especially the Middle East, Africa, South-Central and East Asia — Mr Kerry said, there is A need to educate and offer employment to the growing population of youth to address radicalisation.

EXTREMISTS

“These young people need education and they need opportunity and they need it now – not 10 years from now,” said Mr Kerry.

“And think of the peril if we leave those minds, which have the same desires that many of you do here, if we leave them to the picking of extremists and exploiters and demagogues,” he added.

He said leaders have to improve the overall governance capacity of fighting corruption to earn public confidence and create unity.

“Anyone in local or international business confronts this issue every day in a variety of ways; and for entrepreneurs, poor governance can mean the difference between being able to start up and survive or never getting started at all.

“You have a fundamental interest in how these questions are answered, because you want to open your enterprises without having to pay a bribe or be dependent on making friends in high places,” he said.

The annual conference, which first took place in Washington, DC, in 2010, has since convened innovators and leaders across sectors in Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and Morocco.

Last year, the global summit was hosted in Nairobi, where US President Barack Obama announced that Sh50 billion would be invested in entrepreneurship for women and youth.

President Obama is set to close the summit Friday.

This year’s theme revolves around technology and innovation and has seen the summit convened in Silicon Valley, the home to many of the world's largest high-tech corporations and thousands of start-up companies such as Google, Apple and HP (Hewlett Packard).

(Editing by Beatrice Obwocha and Henry Gekonde)