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
- Ethiopia has announced widespread adjustments to attract startups, including the removal of a 30% capital gains tax on share transfers and issuance, the freedom to retain all foreign currency earned from service exports, and the introduction of tax incentives and tax holidays (Bloomberg)
- Italy’s state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) has announced a €1bn ($1.06bn) AI fund, with €580m to be invested in startups, €300m to be invested into scaleups, and €120m targeting technology transfer (TNW)
- Hungary is to simplify the establishment of foreign-owned companies in an aim to attract more foreign capital into the country (Daily News Hungary)
- South Korea deputy prime minister Choi Sang-mok has announced enhanced ecosystem and SME support, including expanding the budget for fund of funds by 37% to 1.6trn Won ($1.16bn) in 2024 (Ministry of Economy and Finance)
- Malaysia has launched the Social Entrepreneurship Blueprint 2030, an action plan to create a cohesive and holistic ecosystem to support social entrepreneurship in the country (ILO)
- Egypt has launched a GovTech Innovation Lab aimed at empowering GovTech startups and revolutionizing digital public services (Ministry of Communications and IT)
GEN community news
- UNCTAD has rebranded to UN Trade and Development (UN Trade and Development)
- Allied for Startups is recruiting a Director General to be based in its Brussels office (AFS)
- CIPE is recruiting a program officer for its policy and program learning team in D.C. (CIPE)
- John Hopkins University has renamed its FastForward U entrepreneurship center in dedication to alumna, community leader, and EcoMap co-founder Pava LaPere who died tragically last fall (Technical.ly)
Publications & analysis
- Space: The $1.8tn opportunity for global economic growth
This World Economic Forum and McKinsey & Co report sets out how the global space economy could grow from £630bn in 2023 to $1.8tn by 2035. - Unicorn 2.0: Adding the next trillion
This Confederation of Indian Industry report sheds light on the exponential rise of unicorns in India and their impact on the economy. Oped by CII director general Chandrajit Banerjee - Regulatory experimentation: Moving ahead on the agile regulatory governance agenda
This OECD paper helps governments develop regulatory experimentation to generate knowledge and evidence that can improve regulatory quality and outcomes.
Comment
- A $4bn idea gone wrong: The Canada Digital Adoption Program (Noah Zon, co-founder and principal, Springboard Policy)
- Ethiopia’s journey towards digital payments and inclusive financial services (Mamo Mihretu, governor, National Bank of Ethiopia)
- ‘Outdated, terrible comparison and painfully cringe’: The issue with a ‘European Silicon Valley’ (Anne Sraders, senior reporter, Sifted)
- Israeli technology is the best in the world - it’s time to prioritize it in government procurement (Sagive Greenspan, CEO, Priority)
- EU-US Trade and Technology Council: The last hurrah? (Micol Bertolini, associate policy manager, American Chamber of Commerce to the EU)
- Innovation needs government backers like Breakthrough Victoria (Andrew Maxwell, managing director, Chatsworth Associates and chair, Cyban)
- Young Kenyans are not finding work: How universities can do a better job of training entrepreneurs (Renson Muchiri Mwangi, KCA University, Judy N. Muthuri, University of Nottingham and Mohsen Gul, University of Cambridge)
Features
- Sifted: Why Polish founders are being forced to return millions in public grant money
- TechCrunch: When it comes to building startups in Boston, success begets success
- MIT Technology Review: Why the Chinese government is sparing AI from harsh regulations – for now
Insights from Angela Huyue Zhang’s new book High wire: How China regulates big tech and governs its economy
To suggest content for inclusion in future editions of 'The Startup State', please email matt@genglobal.org.
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