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UNCLAS STATE 112495 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON EAID PREL SOCI XF
SUBJECT: THE PRESIDENTIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP SUMMIT AND BEYOND 
 
REF: STATE 112486 
 
COUNTRIES WITH SIGNIFICANT MUSLIM COMMUNITIES--OIC "PLUS 16" LIST. 
NOT ALL ADDRESSEES COULD BE LISTED ON ONE CABLE.  THIS COPY IS FOR 5 
ADDITIONAL ADDRESSEES. 
 
FOR CHIEFS OF MISSION FROM THE SECRETARY 
 
 
 
¶1. (U) SUMMARY:  This is an action cable, see paragraphs 7, 8, 9, and 
¶10.  In the President's June 4 speech in Cairo, he announced that he 
would host an Entrepreneurship Summit within a year.  The National 
Security Council staff and the Domestic Policy Council's Office of 
Social Innovation and Civic Participation have been leading an 
Interagency Team to implement the President's vision for the Summit. 
The Summit will be an unprecedented opportunity to highlight the 
importance of fostering entrepreneurship - focusing especially on the 
connection between entrepreneurship and job creation - in 
Muslim-majority countries (MMCs) and Muslim communities around the 
world.  It will also be an important platform to highlight successful 
entrepreneurs from these communities; to discuss the entrepreneurship 
"ecosystem" including obstacles and ways they can be overcome; to 
brainstorm how to expand the most successful programs; and to build 
networks among stakeholders in entrepreneurship.  The Summit will 
also emphasize the President's broader aims of supporting 
entrepreneurship, innovation, and economic opportunity at home and 
abroad.  To make the most of this strategic opportunity and the 
possibilities beyond, we request that Posts/Missions take several 
important steps, outlined below.  END SUMMARY. 
 
Global Muslim Engagement 
 
¶2. (U) While the President's speech in Cairo included specific action 
items, including a commitment to host an Entrepreneurship Summit, the 
speech is much more than a list of action items.  The speech is most 
importantly strategic guidance for how the U.S. Government will 
engage MMCs, including their minority populations, and Muslim 
communities around the world.  The specific action items mentioned in 
the speech should be accomplished but the principles that those 
action items exemplify should generally inform all of the USG's 
programs, activities, and efforts concerning MMCs and Muslim 
communities around the world.  Specifically, the President 
articulated a desire for "a new beginning" whereby our relationship 
will be more comprehensive (i.e. not defined largely by just one or 
two security or political issues), based on mutual respect, and 
defined by partnerships in areas of mutual interest.  The overarching 
strategic objective for this effort is for the U.S. to work in a 
spirit of partnership to advance opportunity, prosperity, and 
security in MMCs and Muslim communities worldwide by addressing 
issues of paramount concern to people in these communities, such as: 
job creation, entrepreneurship, economic development, education, 
exchanges, responsive governance, science and technology, and health. 
 Addressing the youth bulge and the empowerment of women is a 
priority that should cut across all of these areas. 
 
The Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship 
 
¶3. (U) One of the specific commitments the President made in the 
Cairo speech as an example of his broader commitment to a new 
beginning was to host a summit on entrepreneurship.  The Presidential 
Summit on Entrepreneurship will bring together successful business 
and social entrepreneurs, investors, academics, technology 
developers, leaders of entrepreneurship networks, non-profits, 
foundations, businesses, and select government representatives who 
are invested in advancing business and social entrepreneurship in 
MMCs and Muslim communities around the world.  The Summit will take 
place in Washington, D.C. in the first quarter of 2010.  We 
anticipate inviting at least 150 participants from overseas. 
Participants will be responsible for their own expenses; but there 
will be some funds for participants who are particularly in need of 
support. 
 
¶4. (U) Potential Topics.  The Summit will take place over two days in 
Washington, and the President will deliver opening remarks.  The 
Summit will include a series of moderated discussions on key issues 
and challenges for advancing entrepreneurship, job creation, and 
economic opportunity including:  enhancing access to capital; 
creating and supporting entrepreneur networks; promoting a culture of 
entrepreneurship; broadening access to effective business development 
services; promoting the education, training, and mentoring of 
entrepreneurs; supporting and connecting social entrepreneurs; 
collecting better market data and making it broadly available; 
developing a policy environment that supports entrepreneurship; and 
providing tools and resources for expanding market access for 
entrepreneurs.  Women and youth issues will also be priority areas of 
focus across the board.  In addition to moderated discussions, there 
will be networking opportunities for participants. 
 
¶5. (U) Objectives of Summit.  The Objectives for the Summit are 
multi-fold.  First, the Summit should inform, inspire, and catalyze 
greater entrepreneurship in MMCs and Muslim communities and 
elsewhere.  It will do this by emphasizing the importance of 
entrepreneurship to job creation and expanding economic opportunity, 
and by highlighting potential role-models who have been innovative, 
pioneering and effective as entrepreneurs themselves or in expanding 
opportunities for entrepreneurship.  Second, the Summit will help 
participants (and those able to view the Summit via webcast or 
broadcast) to identify ways of scaling effective approaches to 
entrepreneurship and to address obstacles by bringing together 
stakeholders who are knowledgeable, effective, and successful. 
Third, the Summit will be an opportunity to build and expand global, 
regional, and local entrepreneurship networks.  Finally, we hope the 
Summit will serve as a catalyst for other stakeholders - including 
other governments as well as for-profit and non-profit actors - to 
potentially announce commitments related to supporting 
entrepreneurship, job creation, and economic opportunity.  For 
instance, we hope that this Summit will lead others to hold regional 
conferences built on the same guiding principles and objectives as 
the Summit and to make progress on the goals expressed by 
participants at the Presidential Summit. Ideally, in the long-term, 
the Summit and follow-on processes will result in scaled and 
sustainable support systems for entrepreneurs that will enable them 
to produce the jobs needed to provide meaningful economic opportunity 
for the next generation. 
 
¶6. (SBU) USG Role in Summit and Follow-through Process.  In all of 
the efforts pertaining to the Summit and the follow through on these 
objectives, clear articulation of the role of USG as a convener, 
catalyst, and platform for engagement is paramount.  It will only be 
through partnerships and locally-driven initiatives that the USG can 
play a productive role in expanding entrepreneurship opportunities 
and making them more self-sustaining in MMCs and Muslim communities. 
As such, Washington will aim to do our part to be responsive and to 
empower you to execute your objectives. 
 
¶7. (U) On that note, we want to acknowledge and thank Posts/Missions 
for their outstanding cables providing input to Washington following 
the President's Cairo speech.  Those cables have helped to inform 
both our thinking on the Entrepreneurship Summit, as well as our 
broader emphasis on entrepreneurship, job creation and economic 
opportunity.  Please note, a subsequent cable will provide a more 
comprehensive account of how those earlier cables are informing our 
work here in Washington. 
 
Economic Opportunity Working Groups 
 
¶8. (SBU) ACTION: Chiefs of Mission are requested to establish and 
maintain an interagency working group on expanding economic 
opportunity. (If Post feels it does not have the capacity to do this, 
it should contact its regional bureau, who can work with S/P to 
devise an alternative arrangement.)  Expanding economic opportunity 
will be a top priority in the President's vision for a New Beginning 
with MMCs and Muslim communities.  There will be an on-going, 
multi-year effort to partner with local stakeholders to advance 
economic opportunity, job creation, and entrepreneurship.  The 
request to establish working groups on expanding economic opportunity 
reflects the recognition that many different Country Team elements 
have a role to play in this issue, and these working groups should 
serve as a mechanism for: integrating, coordinating, and leveraging 
the tools, capabilities, programs, and activities of all relevant 
Country Team members; creating and managing partnerships that advance 
economic opportunity, with particular emphasis on identifying, 
supporting, and empowering the most effective local stakeholders; 
executing the President's initiatives in this area and ensuring that 
existing efforts in this area reflect the principles put forward in 
the Cairo speech; ensuring local stakeholders and communities are 
engaged and informed about the work being done. 
 
¶9. (SBU) ACTION (cont.): Posts/Missions should submit a list of their 
10 top nominees to attend the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship 
in Washington.  These should be inspiring, pioneering, effective, 
high-potential stakeholders in business and social entrepreneurship; 
they should be role models for others.  The list of 10 should be 
diverse: well-known and not well-known; big, small, and medium 
enterprises; and there should be a few submissions that do not fall 
under the "usual suspect" category.  For instance, the list should 
also include new economy entrepreneurs, e.g. technology entrepreneurs 
where possible.  These lists should be submitted no later than 
November 30, along with approximately one page including background 
and the justification supporting the nomination (as well as any other 
supporting documentation Post/Missions may wish to submit) for each 
nominee.  (POC:  Greg Behrman, S/P). 
 
¶10. (SBU) ACTION (cont.):  Each Post/Mission is requested to conduct 
a Roundtable (ideally hosted by the Chief of Mission) or a series of 
Roundtables in December to engage key stakeholders in 
entrepreneurship and economic opportunity; the Entrepreneurship 
Summit, our aims for the Summit and to solicit input as to how we can 
achieve those aims; and, to explore the potential for partnerships in 
advancing entrepreneurship, economic opportunity, and job creation 
more generally.  Posts/Missions should seek to facilitate networking 
among local attendees.  Second, Ambassadors are requested to reach 
out individually to stakeholders (investors, business leaders, 
government officials, Foundation and NGO heads, etc) who they feel 
can be high-impact partners and solicit their thoughts, and to 
cultivate them as partners.  Posts/Missions are asked to send a 
summary of the Roundtables and other related engagement efforts to 
Washington NLT December 28 (Attention: S/P - Greg Behrman, S/SRMC - 
Karen Chandler, and R - Sehreen Noor-Ali). 
 
¶11. (U) ACTION (cont.):  Each Post/Mission is asked to provide a 
summary of proposed public diplomacy activities for the Summit and 
for lead-up and related activities.  Please submit to Washington by 
November 30.  Each Post/Mission is also requested to profile as 
appropriate Post/Mission efforts to advance local entrepreneurship 
and economic opportunity and to highlight programs and activities for 
which entrepreneurs and stakeholders in advancing entrepreneurship 
may be eligible.  (Attention: S/P - Greg Behrman, R - Sehreen 
Noor-Ali). 
 
¶12. (SBU) As noted, the Summit is part of a process.  Follow-up will 
ideally include regional and sub-regional conferences, which we hope 
will be hosted by other governments or leading local institutions. 
Posts/Missions should begin thinking about public or private sector 
partners (educational institutions, NGOs, Foundations, etc) who can 
serve as hosts for future conferences, which will offer opportunities 
for engaging the issues and goals addressed at the Summit with 
regional specificity and with a larger and more inclusive set of 
stakeholders. 
 
Conclusion 
 
¶13. (SBU) This Summit will be a singular and unprecedented 
opportunity to demonstrate that the United States wishes to be a 
partner in advancing economic opportunity around the world, including 
in MMCs and in Muslim communities.  It will be an extraordinary 
opportunity to profile leaders and pioneers who can build the future 
that we all seek, to create a global network of stakeholders in 
entrepreneurship, and to inspire others to support them and to follow 
their example.  Your efforts per the ACTION items in this cable will 
enable us to maximize the strategic benefits from the Summit and will 
be instrumental in realizing the President's vision for a New 
Beginning based on mutual respect and the pursuit of partnership in 
areas of mutual interest.  We are deeply grateful for your efforts. 
Thank you. 
 
¶14. (U) Minimize considered. 
CLINTON