Welcome to ‘The Startup State’ - a weekly bulletin from the GEN Policy and Research team highlighting key entrepreneurship news, reports, commentary and features from around the world.
News
- Cape Town, South Africa is to host GEC+ Africa next March, a three-day event that will convene over 1,000 entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, and ecosystem leaders from more than 50 African nations. Learn more and register: https://gecafrica.co
- Vilnius, Lithuania has secured €100m ($109m) of private investment to create ‘Tech Zity’, Europe’s largest startup campus at 55,000 square meters (TechCrunch)
- The Seoul Metropolitan Government has announced the Seoul Startup Policy 2030, a $1.3 billion spending package to grow South Korean startups with the aim of fostering at least 50 unicorns. The policy includes building the Seoul Unicorn Startup Hub, billed as the world’s largest startup campus at 106,000 square meters (Korea Herald)
- Japan Post Bank, the majority government-owned Japanese bank, will invest $7 billion into startups across the country, using its network of 24,000 post offices to find investment targets (Nikkei Asia)
- Thailand’s stock exchange has announced plans to strengthen its listing regulations in response to a series of events that have shaken investors (Asia Tech Daily)
- Israel has earmarked $21m for five new tech innovation hubs to boost employment opportunities for residents in the Negev and in the Galilee and close gaps between the periphery and the center (Times of Israel)
- Australia has passed legislation to launch ‘The Startup Year’ - a program that will support 2,000 students per year to bring their startup ideas to life (Australian Government)
Comment
- Talking trade, tech - and security? (Matthew Eitel, program officer, Center for European Policy Analysis)
The transatlantic Trade and Technology Council so far has avoided discussing Europe’s strict new tech regulations. As the US Congress steps up pressure this silence now could change. - Japan should seize the chance to get generative AI rules right (Kris Shrishak, senior fellow, Irish Council for Civil Liberties)
- Why implementing AI guardrails will unlock benefits for society (Kriti Sharma, founder, AI for Good)
- Why China needs to shore up confidence in its own entrepreneurs after giving the red-carpet treatment to Gates and Musk (Zhou Xin, tech editor, South China Morning Post)
Features
- Forbes: ‘Emphasis on surfing and bitcoin’ attracts investments to El Salvador
- Politico: The scale-up city: How Eindhoven races to keep up with its tech giants
- Realistic Optimist: Why France’s largest VS is government-owned
To suggest content for inclusion in future editions of 'The Startup State', please email matt@genglobal.org.
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