G20 Young Entrepreneurs’ Alliance: 2016
Highlights from the 2016 G20 Young Entrepreneurs’ Alliance Summit
Futurpreneur Canada is proud to facilitate international opportunities for young entrepreneurs. This year, 32 dynamic young Canadian entrepreneurs were selected by Futurpreneur Canada to represent Canada at the 2016 G20 Young Entrepreneurs Alliance (G20 YEA) Summit in Beijing from September 8-10th.
About the G20 YEA
G20 YEA is a collective of organizations from G20 member jurisdictions that promote youth entrepreneurship as a driver of economic renewal, job creation, innovation and social change. G20 YEA members represent more than 500,000 young entrepreneurs and, each year, the G20 YEA brings together hundreds of them to share their ideas with G20 and B20 leaders to catalyze global change.
G20 YEA 2016 Summit (September 8-10)
The 2016 G20 YEA Beijing Summit built upon the 2015 Antalya G20 leaders’ pledge to encourage entrepreneurship and address the global challenge of youth unemployment. More than 300 young entrepreneurs met in Beijing to share innovative ideas, make valuable connections and discuss how to advance youth entrepreneurship across the G20 nations.
Click here for more on the Summit theme and agenda.
The 2016 delegation was Canada’s biggest ever: 32 young entrepreneurs from across the country. Meet the delegates here.
At the 2016 Summit, 11 Canadian delegates shared their thoughts on various panel discussions and five Canadian delegates were finalists in the Pitch Competition, with first place going to Canadian delegate Harold Dumur of OVA.
Trip Highlights
Over the course of 11 days in Shanghai, Hangzhou and Beijing, the 2016 Canadian delegates participated in a business-building, policy-making and networking activities, including:
- The Canada China Business Council Annual Policy Conference and Gala, hosted by The Rt. Honourable Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada
- B2B meetings with Chinese businesses, entrepreneurs and investors
- A roundtable hosted by Perrin Beatty, President of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, in collaboration with the Canada China Business Council
- Meetings and presentations with Canadian federal and provincial trade commissioners
- The 2016 B20 Summit
- Incubator, accelerator and tech-park visits, including Caohejing Hi-Tech Park, X-Nod, the National Eastern Tech-Transfer Center and Zhongguancun Park
- Meetings with Canadian leaders including:
- The Rt. Honourable Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada
- The Honourable Bill Morneau, Finance Minister
- His Excellency Guy Saint-Jacques, Ambassador of Canada to China
“I am pleased with the progress made by leaders at the G20 Summit towards strong global economic growth that is inclusive, cleaner, and more sustainable. I especially welcomed efforts aimed at giving every member of society—including women and youth—an opportunity to contribute and benefit from this growth which will help build the prosperity of the middle class. The agenda put forward by China—moving together toward an innovative, invigorated, interconnected, and inclusiveworld economy—was both timely and on point.”
– The Right Honourable Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada
G20 YEA 2016 Communique
The G20 YEA communiqué is a call to action for G20 governments to focus upon entrepreneurship, innovation and entrepreneurial education to address job creation and youth employment. Supported by global consultations with young entrepreneurs and research conducted for the G20 YEA by its knowledge partners, Accenture, EY and the G20/G8 Research Group, the 2016 communiqué made ten recommendations to the G20 leaders:
- Make entrepreneurship education compulsory for all learners in primary and secondary levels.
- Encourage and support the creation of university-based incubators and accelerators in partnership with the private sector, institutions and foundations.
- Drive the development of angel networks and alternative innovative funding platforms for young entrepreneurs through targeted incentives.
- Implement structural and legal reforms to promote entrepreneurship by reducing costs,bureaucracy, business disruption, and legal gaps.
- Enable SMEs to scale through fiscal incentives for scale-ups and its investors.
- Implement a policy to assist young entrepreneurs to do trade with others countries.
- Establish an electronic World Trade Platform (e-WTP) to simplify regulations and harmonization of customs barriers and tariffs to encourage global e-commerce.
- Establish a G20 Entrepreneur Visa to provide multilateral long-term visa and fast-track clearance for entrepreneurs within G20 countries.
- Ensure access to reliable/low cost high speed digital infrastructure for start-ups and scale-up businesses.
- Build an innovation dialogue among G20 countries.
Next Steps
The Canadian G20 YEA delegation will work hard in the coming year to help advance and support these recommendations at home in Canada. In particular, the delegation would like to see Canada take a leadership role in implementing a young entrepreneur visa program alongside the Working Holiday visa.
