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
- South Korea and the United Kingdom hosted the AI safety summit this week, at which, governments and industry executives signed the ‘Seoul Declaration for safe, innovative and inclusive AI’ (TechCrunch)
- Egypt has launched the headquarters of the Entrepreneurship and Startups Unit at the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI). The unit will serve as a hub for communication between the government and the entrepreneurial community (Egypt Today)
- Pakistan has announced plans to give tax exemptions to startups in the healthtech, AI, fintech and ag-tech sectors (Dawn)
- Georgia’s Innovation and Technology Agency (GITA) welcomed leading international accelerators including Startupbootcamp, Plug and Play and Baltic Innovation Agency to Tbilisi this week and introduced a new tax regime for tech startups as part of its GITA 2.0 program to ensure “transformation of the country as a hub of innovations” (Agenda.ge)
- Japan plans to make it easier for startups to sign fairer contracts with large enterprises. Startups and small businesses often serve as sub-contractors for larger companies under unfavorable terms, limiting their growth. The government will roll out free, standardized contracts to address this (NikkeiAsia)
- Kenya has revived a controversial bill that aims to regulate the ICT industry by licensing and registering ICT companies and professionals – in the same week it announced a regulatory sandbox to assist ICT startups (TechCabal)
Research & analysis
- Place-based preferential policies and firm performance
This World Bank report analyzes the impact of South Asian economic zones on firms, finding that zones boost foreign investment and employment, with infrastructure and trade facilitation being key to improved firm performance. - The lilac review: Interim report
This UK government-backed independent review aims to tackle the inequality faced by disabled-led businesses. The interim report identifies barriers and provides recommendations for government, financial services, and business support organizations to create a more equitable entrepreneurial environment. - Scaling a midsize startup
This Harvard Business Review article by Benjamin Hallen and Ed Hallen explores strategies for midsize scaleups to scale effectively. - Pro-competitive industrial policy
This OECD paper explores how aligning industrial policy with competition policy can boost economic efficiency and innovation.
Comment
- Unravelling accelerators: To fund or not to fund? (Chris Haley, head of research, Startup Genome and senior advisor, GEN)
- Global entrepreneurship trends in 5 charts (Frederic Meunier, Laure Le Gall and Reem Hashad, World Bank)
- Japan can draw foreign startups by fostering community support (Takashi Kumon, professor, Institute of Asian Studies, Asia University)
- European angel investing grows up (Zosia Wanat, senior reporter, Sifted)
- How digitalisation can close Africa’s gender financing gap (Luke Kilian, journalist, African Business)
Features
- Time: Taiwan’s digital minister Audrey Tang has an ambitious plan to align tech with democracy
- The Chosun Daily: ‘Zombie’ entrepreneurs who can’t afford to close down are on the rise in South Korea
- Reuters: Paris vies for AI crown as key conference <Vivatech> beckons
- Nikkei Asia: From Japanese knives to sake, startups open new doors for traditional crafts
GEN Atlas insights
The GEN Atlas is the world’s largest entrepreneurship policy compendium, featuring over 370 case studies from 70 countries. Using these case studies, we publish Country Deep Dives examining the policies underpinning countries’ entrepreneurial success, Policy Deep Dives comparing different countries’ approaches to common policy challenges, and Atlas Spotlights highlighting the best examples of policies under a broad theme. Recent highlights:
- Atlas spotlights: Finance
- Policy deep dives: Startup visas | Youth entrepreneurship | Supporting ethnic minority entrepreneurs
- Country deep dives: South Africa | France | The Netherlands
To suggest content for inclusion in future editions of 'The Startup State', please email matt@genglobal.org.
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