Photo 1 – Ambassador Jackson and the Hon. Ana Margarita Romero, Minister of the Authority for SMEs, Panama
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H.
E. Rhoda M. Jackson, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of The
Bahamas to the United Nations Office in Geneva, Switzerland was elected
Chairperson of the Multi-year Expert Meeting on Investment, Innovation
and Entrepreneurship for Productive Capacity-building and Sustainable
Development, organized by the United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development (UNCTAD).
The
two-day meeting which was convened on Monday 30 March, 2015 at the
Palais des Nations in Geneva, focused on highlighting the linkages
between entrepreneurship and productive capacity-building and
sustainable development, particularly among disadvantaged groups, such
as youth and women. The meeting also sought to identify initiatives to
assist small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to integrate into the
Global Value Chain (GVC) through skills upgrading and policy
intervention in areas such as women’s, youth, green and social
entrepreneurship: it further benefitted from the sharing of good
practices aimed at assisting policymakers in developing and implementing
national policies to address these issues.
Experts
from both governmental and non-governmental organizations, private
sector and academia exchanged views on policy frameworks and key
capabilities to promote entrepreneurship, while identifying challenges
such as access to financing for youth entrepreneurs. Companies from
developing countries shared positive experiences derived from their
participation in UNCTAD’s Empretec initiative, a programme designed to
inspire and assist entrepreneurs start, grow and develop their
businesses.
A
major event at the meeting was the launch by six young entrepreneurs,
selected from both developed and developing countries, to promote their
business portfolio before a panel of investors, with a view to obtaining
financing of their respective projects.
L-R Tatiana Krylova, Head, Enterprise Branch, Division on Investment and Enterprise, UNCTAD, Ambassador Jackson as President and Arkady Sarkissov, UNCTAD Support Services
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