Welcome to ‘The Startup State’ - a weekly bulletin from the GEN Policy and Research team highlighting key entrepreneurship announcements, reports, commentary and features from around the world.
News
- Canada has announced a new AI strategy that turns artificial intelligence into a national economic and sovereignty priority. The plan targets USD $143bn in growth, creating 250,000 new AI-related jobs over five years, and lifting business AI adoption from 12% to 60% by 2034 (StartupFortune)
- Uzbekistan has announced new measures to support young entrepreneurs with loans of up to $167,000 and unsecured financing of $1,700. The programs aim to reach more than 300,000 young people and create nearly 100,000 jobs by 2030 (Daryo)
- The United Kingdom has published The Maple Review, an independent, government-backed review into the barriers to entrepreneurship caused by economic deprivation. The review examines the current landscape and sets out key recommendations for government, financial services, and business support organizations to ensure entrepreneurship is accessible to everyone, regardless of starting point (Maple Review)
Comment and analysis
- Central Asia doesn't need its own European Union, perhaps a startup treaty (Seongmin Hong, AsiaTechDaily)
- How Azerbaijan is breaking out of the emerging market innovation trap (Taleh Hahirli, deputy CEO and CSO, ABB Bank)
- Tech for good isn't dead. Venture capital just forgot how to find it (Alex Stephany, founder and CEO, Beam)
- The Smorgasbord Standard: Sweden startups and why the rest of the world should be taking notes (Paul O'Brien, author, Startup Economist)
- Silicon Valley's lure is fading for India's tech talent (Ananya Bhattacharya, Rest of World)
- The UK's £500m bet: What the Sovereign AI Fund gets right - and still gets wrong (Matt Hopkins, entrepreneur and writer)
- Why the (Australian) Budget's CGT changes are a disaster for angel investors and startups (Cheryl Mack, CEO, Aussie Angels)
- EU Inc signals a shift: Why immigration will matter to Europe's new corporate agenda (Ana Sofia Walsh and Soraya Driessen, Fragomen)
- Why "university startups" that drove U.S. innovation struggle to succeed in South Korea (Kim Hye Min, AsiaBusinessDaily)
Features
- Fintech and wider digital ecosystem of the Baltics: Estonia in 2026 (The Fintech Times)
- Business as a path out of displacement (The Reporter Ethiopia)
- Interview with Magzhan Madiyev, CEO of Astana Hub (Cyprus Mail)
- A 57% decline: The Hunter Prize for Public Policy takes on the curious case of Canada's missing entrepreneurs (The Hub)
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The opinions expressed in the articles above are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Global Entrepreneurship Network.