Exhibit of products of small-, medium-sized businesses, Conference on "sustainability" also to be held
Geneva, 12 November 2010 - Directors from 25 UNCTAD-coordinated centres specializing in encouraging entrepreneurship around the world will meet from 16-18 November in Rio de Janeiro to discuss ideas and strategies for the programme.
The 17th Directors Meeting of the Empretec programme will be hosted in conjunction the XIV International Meeting for Entrepreneurs. That conference is being organized by UNCTAD in collaboration with SEBRAE, the Brazilian Support Service for Micro and Small Enterprises (www.sebrae.com.br). The theme of the second gathering is "The Path to Sustainability."
UNCTAD Empretec Centres operate in 32 countries around the world. Empretec training programmes teach existing and aspiring entrepreneurs how to establish small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and how to make them profitable. Since 1988, the programme has trained more than 180,000 people in developing countries who have created thousands of businesses and many thousands of jobs. That is helping to ease a shortage in such nations of SMEs, which economists say are vital for broad-based national economic growth.
Attending the annual meeting will be Empretec directors from Argentina, Benin, Botswana, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, El Salvador, Ghana, Guatemala, Guyana, Jordan, Mozambique, Mauritius, Nigeria, Panama, Peru, Romania, Paraguay, Senegal, Uganda, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe.
The International Meeting for Entrepreneurs is expected to attract more than 3,000 people, many of them graduates of the Empretec programme. The theme of sustainability will be discussed in workshops, lectures and panels; and an exhibition will be staged in which Brazilian and international SMEs will display products and services and forge business links. The exhibit will include displays by 25 entrepreneurs from Argentina, Colombia, Guyana, Jordan, Uruguay, Peru, and Zimbabwe, who operating "green" businesses. The concept of "sustainability" at the meeting is defined as a business model linked to social justice, local culture, and environmental respect.
The Empretec network also will celebrate "Global Entrepreneurship Week," to be observed in 80 countries from 15-21 November. The Week is intended to draw the attention millions of young people around the world to the value and benefits of entrepreneurship. Jonathan Ortmans of the Kauffman Foundation, which led the move to establish the Global Entrepreneurship Week, (www.unleashingideas.org) will give the keynote speech at the opening of the XIV Meeting of Entrepreneurs.
