Entrepreneurship Week 2011 conference opens alongside events held in 118 countries
The country’s leading entrepreneurs, academics and economic experts emphasized on Monday the need to instill young talent with entrepreneurship and underpin startups as economic drivers in an era of innovation.
About 500 businesspeople, scholars and public officials joined the International Conference on Global Entrepreneurship, which was held in Seoul by the country’s five largest business organizations to mark Entrepreneurship Week 2011 ending Nov. 12.
“Korean businesspeople should exert entrepreneurial leadership more actively to overcome aggravating global economic conditions and to open up new markets abroad,” said SaKong Il, chairman of the Korea International Trade Association.
앞줄 왼쪽부터 정병철 전경련 상근부회장, 손경식 대한상공회의소 회장, 사공일 무역협회 회장, 최중경 지식경제부 장관, 송재희 중앙회 상근부회장, 김영배 한국경영자총협회 부회장.박현구 기자phko@heraldm.com Minister of Knowledge Economy Choi Joong-kyung (third from right, front row), Korea International Trade Association chairman SaKong Il (fourth from right, front row) and Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief Sohn Kyung-shik (fifth from right, front row) participate in the opening ceremony of Entrepreneurship Week 2011 and International Conference on Global Entrepreneurship in Seoul on Monday. Park Hyun-koo/The Korea Herald
Minister of Knowledge Economy Choi Joong-kyung (third from right, front row), Korea International Trade Association chairman SaKong Il (fourth from right, front row) and Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief Sohn Kyung-shik (fifth from right, front row) participate in the opening ceremony of Entrepreneurship Week 2011 and International Conference on Global Entrepreneurship in Seoul on Monday. (Park Hyun-koo/The Korea Herald)
“Their leadership will be an engine to transform Korea into an advanced economy and society of co-prosperity.”
The annual event was kicked off in 2008 initially by the Korean government to seek ways to triumph over an economic slump and revitalize the economy.
It also coincides with Global Entrepreneurship Week, the world’s biggest celebration of entrepreneurs launched by former U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Carl Schramm, president and chief executive of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the world’s largest foundation devoted to entrepreneurship. Since then, the week-long event has expanded to 118 countries, engaging millions of businesspeople and startup hopefuls in seminars, competitions, lectures and other activities.
Participants include Anatole Kaletsky, the author of Capitalism 4.0 and editor-at-Large of the Times of London; Kim Sang-hun, chief executive of NHN Corp.; Kwon Yong-won, president of Kiwoom Securities Co.; Lee Dong-hyeung, co-founder of Cyworld and chief executive of NowProfile; Kim Dong-jae, a Yonsei University professor of international studies; and Knowledge Economy Minister Choi Joong-kyung.
Critics have been raising concerns that the country’s venture businesses have lost their dynamism under pressure from large corporations and that high barriers among different fields hold back technology development. When a business fails, despite promising skills and concepts, it is barely given a second chance, being branded a “failure.”
To build an environment where venture firms and small businesses continue to innovate, “entrepreneurs should always keep in mind to create jobs and give back their wealth to society,” Schramm said.
By Shin Hyon-hee (heeshin@heraldm.com)
koreaherald@heraldcorp.com
