Saudi Arabia Talking Points for Lorraine Hariton:

Global Competitiveness Forum

OPENING:

It is an honor and a pleasure to be here with all of you today at the Global Competitiveness Forum. I’d like to thank the organizers for their kind invitation, and I look forward to a productive discussion with both the distinguished panelists, and the esteemed audience members here today.

I’d also like to thank our exceptional team at Embassy Riyadh, who has worked tirelessly to make my visit a success. I commend you and appreciate all of your efforts on behalf of the United States of America.

BEGIN REMARKS:

Today’s panel, “The Coming Jobs War,” is a future statement. I challenge this idea. It should be a “present” statement. In effect, I believe the

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jobs war is already here, and has been for some time. The Arab Spring highlighted for all the pressing need for job creation among the youth in this region. And many of the world’s most developed nations are also struggling with this same challenge.

Job creation is one of President Obama’s top priorities. We have a number of programs across the U.S. government, and at the State Department where I work, we are focus on job creation – both in the United States and around the world.

US Government initiatives for job creation include:

The National Export Initiative, which President Obama announced as part of his State of the Union address in 2010. This ambitious program sets a goal of doubling U.S. exports by the end of 2014 to create 2 million jobs in the United States.

Select USA, which is aimed at helping attract foreign investment into the United States.

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And Start Up America, announced by President Obama last year, to enable the United States Government and the private sector to work together to foster innovative job growth. This program ensures that US government regulations, incentives, and other programs are aligned to support the entrepreneur.

However, job creation is not a zero-sum game: we can all be winners. As the United States seeks to create jobs back home, we also support job creation in emerging economies. Entrepreneurship, as the backbone of job creation, is a win-win for all of us. In fact, according to the Kaufman Foundation, almost all net new jobs in the US in the last 10 years were created by companies under 5 years old. Entrepreneurship and its cousin innovation, underpins economic health, political stability, and civil society. This is why Entrepreneurship has become an increasingly important component of the State Departments “Economic Statecraft” agenda.

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This is so critical today because unfortunately, employment prospects are not keeping pace with youth populations in many countries. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), the unemployment rate for 15-24 year olds was over 13% in 2009, the highest level on record. Over 81 million of the world’s 620 million economically active youth are unemployed.

The region of the world with the highest rate of youth unemployment – over 23% -- was the Middle East and North Africa. In Saudi Arabia, an estimated 65 percent of the population is under 25 years old. I have heard that Saudi Arabia may need to create as many as 3 million new jobs for its young population over the next 10 years.

The ILO also reported that skills training for young entrepreneurs is one of the most valuable investments for countries with scarce employment prospects.

Because of our history and culture, the United States has developed a well-earned reputation

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for building successful entrepreneurial ecosystems, and has achieved some success in encouraging and commercializing innovations that lead to the start-up of new businesses.

As a result, the United States has taken great strides to promote entrepreneurship and help countries improve the ecosystem for entrepreneurs. As one measure of that effort, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton launched the Global Entrepreneurship Program, the GEP, in April 2010 at the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship. The GEP is now part of the office I run at the Department of State.

The GEP promotes entrepreneurship activities globally through our U.S. Embassies and Consulates. One approach we’ve used successfully is to place an Entrepreneurs-in-Residence on the ground as we have done in Egypt, Indonesia, and Turkey. This allows expert entrepreneurs to encourage and assist start-up companies directly by leveraging the efforts of our growing base of 125 partners around the world. Programs are focused on six

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areas: identifying entrepreneurs, training them, providing access to capital, sustaining them through mentoring and access to resources, developing the enabling environment and celebrating their success.

Most recently, the GEP has begun to implement entrepreneurship programs in Morocco and Tunisia as part of a regional effort to create jobs through increased partnerships and programs in North Africa under the auspices of the U.S. – North Africa Partnership for Economic Opportunity, or NAPEO.

Another mechanism we have used with great success in the GEP is to organize entrepreneurship delegations to meet with promising entrepreneurs in country. Last fall, I led a delegation to Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. The delegation consisted of 15 leading U.S. Diaspora entrepreneurs, early stage investors and academics. Our delegation met with promising start-ups, provided hands-on training, and discussed further partnership possibilities. In fact, I just came from a follow-

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on conference on Entrepreneurship, held in Morocco that boasted speakers and government representatives from throughout North Africa and the United States.

Last month, I attended the second annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Istanbul, hosted by Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan. This was the first follow-on to the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship hosted by U.S. President Obama in Washington, D.C., in April 2010. Our Vice President, Joseph Biden, opened the Summit to a crowd of more than 3,000 participants from more than 30 countries.

During the opening ceremonies, UAE Minister of Economy Sultan Al Mansoori announced the UAE would host the third annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit this fall.

The Department of State sponsored Global Innovation through Science and Technology or GIST initiative is empowering young scientists and technology entrepreneurships to turn innovative ideas into new products, companies

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and jobs. GIST leverages a network of partners to implement skill development programs and incentive-based competitions that identify, support and finance high potential tech-startups throughout the Muslim world.

One area of mutual interest and of great importance to Secretary Clinton is promoting women’s entrepreneurship. We know from the work we’ve done around the world that no country can prosper when it leaves half its population behind. We call women “force multipliers” because when we invest in women, their success translate to success for their children, their families, their communities, and, ultimately, to their country.

Our experience is that women are both capable and motivated to become drivers of their economies. At a recent Start-Up Weekend we had in Alexandria, Egypt, of 800 applicants, 200 were women; 5 of the 24 mentors for the process were successful women entrepreneurs. In fact the winning team was led by a woman.

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We are pleased to note that there is a growing recognition in Saudi Arabia that entrepreneurship can help create jobs. Saudi government ministries have launched efforts to promote high-tech incubators, provide financing to start-up companies and support women entrepreneurs.

I had the privilege to meet with many of the participants in the emerging Saudi entrepreneurial ecosystem yesterday and was impressed with their commitment to moving this effort forward.

We look forward to work together and to learn from each other’s best practices.

Entrepreneurship is a win-win for any economy, and we welcome your collaboration.

Thank you for your time today. I look forward to hearing my fellow panelists’ ideas on this important issue, and to a productive discussion with all of you.

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