The Startup State: Issue #38

A weekly bulletin from the GEN Policy and GEN Research team highlighting key entrepreneurship news, reports, commentary, and features from around the world. 
Matt
Smith

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

  • Germany has earmarked an additional €1.6bn ($1.7bn) for an equity fund for technologies of the future and €150m ($161m) for the European Recovery Programme fund (IPE)
  • Malaysia is to establish an Entrepreneur Development and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Council (MPUPK) permanent secretariat to address overlaps in entrepreneurship-related programs (New Straits Times)
  • Cyprus is to launch a National Development Agency as part of wider measures aimed at facilitating financing for SMEs and startups (philenews)
  • The United Kingdom government has acknowledged concerns raised about recent changes to angel investor rules and will “will closely” with the startup community to find a solution. Over 2,700 industry representatives signed a letter calling for a reversal of a policy to raise the income threshold for the status of high-net-worth individuals that disproportionately reduce the number of female and regional angel investors (UK Tech News)
  • Entrepreneurs in the United States have called on the Small Business Administration to alter business size thresholds that determine eligibility for SBA programs, access to capital and federal contracting opportunities (Inc)
  • Ukraine is working to overhaul its business regulation system to scrap and update hundreds of documents to help entrepreneurship and boost the war-ravaged economy (US News)

Publications & analysis

  • Competitiveness through entrepreneurship: A strategy for U.S. innovation
    This National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE) report sets out ten recommendations for how the U.S. Department of Commerce, the federal government, and the private sector can foster an entrepreneurship ecosystem that ensures the U.S. leads in critical technology innovation. 
  • Promoting international investment by small and medium-sized enterprises
    This UNCTAD report discusses how to reduce the common investment policy bias in home and host countries towards large multi-national enterprises and means to maximize the development impact of SME foreign direct investment. 
  • The real effects of trade financing by export credit agencies
    This Centre for Economic Policy Research paper by Poorya Kabir, Adrien Matray, Karsten Muller and Chenzi Xu discusses the effect of the effective shutdown of the Export-Import Bank of the US from 2015-2019 on firm outcomes. It finds that, overall, export credit subsidies can boost exports even in countries with well-developed financial markets, without necessarily leading to a misallocation of resources. 

Comment

Features

To suggest content for inclusion in future editions of 'The Startup State', please email matt@genglobal.org.

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