UNDERGRADUATES who have innovative ideas and a passion for entrepreneurship are urged to participate in the Global Entrepreneurship Community Summit (GECommunity Summit) which will be held in Kuala Lumpur come mid-December.
Initiated by the Ministry of Finance and organised by Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC), the annual event — which is in its second edition — is aimed at building a global entrepreneurship ecosystem which will work together in anticipating market demand and opportunity gaps in order to innovate in different sectors, in turn driving entrepreneurship and the future economic growth of the country.
Treasury secretary general Tan Sri Irwan Serigar Abdullah, who is also MaGIC chairman and patron of Global Entrepreneurship Movement (GEM), said for Malaysia to be a nation fuelled by innovative ideas, it is highly essential for the spirit of entrepreneurship to be instilled into and fostered among youths.
“GECommunity 2017 connects entrepreneurs, innovative thinkers and futurists together to design the future of entrepreneurship to consolidate the ecosystem,” he said at the kick-off to the global summit held in Cyberjaya, Selangor last week.
Highlighting that it can be daunting for entrepreneurs to start their own businesses, he added: “You have to get access to sufficient capital, you have to network with the right crowd, and you need great mentorship programmes that can guide you as you kick-start your idea.
“This is precisely why a community of entrepreneurs is essential in bridging the gap between the local and global entrepreneurship community.”
Exposure to the entrepreneurship community will enable graduates to gain the mindset that will transform them into “job creators rather than job seekers”.
Themed Designing the Future, GECommunity Summit 2017 will centre on the current and emerging needs of developing and developed communities so that ideas are designed through intentional action and participation by the community; rich insights and lessons of the global entrepreneurship community so that programmes to accelerate conversion of ideas can be built from the past for action today; as well as the rapid changes in technology development, adoption, and deployment so that the GECommunity can build a future for entrepreneurs shaped by local, regional and global forces.
With Ministry of the Higher Education (MOHE) collaborating in the summit, there will be student-targeted programmes such as the Entrepreneurial Higher Education Symposium: Building Entrepreneurial Ecosystem for Higher Education Institutions Towards Industry 4.0; MOHE Siswapreneur Makerthon Challenge: Smart City, Smart Community; Public-Private Research Network Innovation Lab; and Public-Private Research Network Awards at the event.
While MOHE is a partner which stands to drive the entrepreneurship spirit among youths, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation comes in as a collaborator which facilitates and promotes the commercialisation of ideas.
GECommunity 2017 will also recognise winners of ColossusINNO2017 — an inaugural global entrepreneurship competition (organised by the summit community partner GEM) aimed at encouraging aspiring entrepreneurs to develop real-world innovative solutions to bridge gaps in the Asean market and propel nations in the region closer toward first-world status.
The summit will also play host to TENxCLUB by GEM, a by-qualification and invitation-only exclusive club that offers valuable network and support to start-ups on an international scale.
In line with the theme, invited speakers at the summit include futurists Dr Michio Kaku and Sophie Hackford; former politician, venture capitalist and champion for France’s tech start-up scene Fleur Pellerin; and serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist Steve Hoffman. Speaker invitations have also been extended to individuals in the local entrepreneurship space such as AirAsia’s Tan Sri Tony Fernandes, Bioeconomy Development Corporation’s Dr Mohd Shuhaizam Mohd Zain, and NanoMalaysia’s Dr Rezal Khairi Ahmad.