Entrepreneurship Roundtable with Assistant Secretary Blake

December 11, 2009
  
ALMATY, Kazakhstan:  On December 14 U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Robert Blake, will host a roundtable on entrepreneurship and economic opportunity with 15 prominent Kazakhstani entrepreneurs and business leaders, including Nurlan Kapparov, Founder and Chairman of The Lancaster Group, Azat Peruashev, Chairman of the Atameken National Union of Entrepreneurs, and Yerzhan Mandiyev, President of Asia Auto.

With this roundtable, Assistant Secretary Blake will kick off a series of activities to promote economic opportunity and entrepreneurship in Kazakhstan, leading up to the Presidential Entrepreneurship Summit, hosted by President Barack Obama in Washington, D.C., in the first quarter of 2010.
During his landmark speech in Cairo on June 4, President Obama agreed to host a summit on entrepreneurship for 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 Muslim-majority communities around the world.

The Summit will 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.

On November 30, the Embassy nominated 12 outstanding Kazakhstani entrepreneurs to participate in the Summit and committed to conduct a roundtable in December to engage key stakeholders in entrepreneurship and economic opportunity.

President Obama has said that entrepreneurs are the engine of job creation and a force for innovation, creativity, and risk-taking.  He recently declared the week of November 16 to be National Entrepreneurship Week in the United States.