Kuala Lumpur, 17 June 2010
The Global Entrepreneurship Week Malaysia 2010 (GEW Malaysia 2010) was launched today at the iconic Kuala Lumpur Tower, the 5th tallest telecommunication tower in the world by YB Dato’ Saifuddin, the Deputy Minister of Higher Education and GEW Malaysia Patron and H.E. Boyd McCleary. The launch was supported by the British High Commission Kuala Lumpur as the Launch Partner and Menara KL as the Venue sponsor.  GEW Malaysia 2010 will be held from November 8-21 November 2010.

In line with the New Economic Model and the 10th Malaysia Plan,  the government recognizes the need to significantly increase entrepreneurial capabilities and reach, GEW Malaysia 2010 will emphasize its role as catalyst to promote a start-up culture among the youth. Not just a start-up culture but one that is rooted in innovative, sound business models and practices and one with global reach. This will support the government’s push to drive Malaysia into a high income nation.

To facilitate the objective, GEW Malaysia 2010 connects partners from government, corporations, universities, associations and entrepreneurs to organize enterprising activities up to November 21, 2010. GEW will be officially closed in 80 + countries globally.

Following the success of GEW in Malaysia in 2008 and 2009, GEW Malaysia in 2010 aims to reach new heights by increasing both the number of partners and activities as well as deep dives through increasing Malaysian participation in global signature GEW activities such as Clean Tech Open-Global Ideas Competition, Start-Up Open and other international entrepreneurship development initiatives such as Enterprise Tuesday (a collaboration with Cambridge’s Judge School of Business), Blastbeat, Silicon Valley Comes to Malaysia and other such exciting activities.
 
GEW Malaysia 2010 in its 3rd year now has on board several new landmark partners such as the US Embassy Malaysia, Yayasan Inovasi Malaysia, DiGi Telecommunications and Menara KL joining previous sponsors and partners such as MSC Malaysia and Microsoft. Other sponsors and partners include Techistan, Malaysia SME, Youth Entrepreneur Malaysia, Gorgeous Geeks, Brilliant Resources, Guerrilla Entrepreneurs, and Talent Edge.

 “In order to achieve the national goal of becoming a high-income and developed nation, the government has announced strategic key thrusts in the 10th Malaysia Plan that among others include entrepreneurship as the impetus of creativity and innovation of which will translates to socio-economic growth. The government opined that similar to leaders, entrepreneurs are not born but created. Therefore, an entrepreneurship ecosystem is vital to foster a conducive enterprising environment as well as provide exposure, network and support to those who would like to become entrepreneurs and GEW is doing just that,” said Dato’ Saifuddin Abdullah, Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Patron for GEW Malaysia.
 

A major supporter since the first-ever GEW in 2008 and the sponsor for today’s launch, the British High Commissioner to Malaysia, HE Boyd McCleary said, “We are delighted once again to be supporting Global Entrepreneurship Week in Malaysia.  This is truly a global campaign aimed at promoting innovative new ways of doing business and helping to generate economic growth.  The campaign has grown from strength to strength in Malaysia, a clear indication that the entrepreneurial spirit here is thriving.”

The U.S. Embassy is also partnering for the first time to support Global Entrepreneurship Week in Malaysia.  The Embassy’s representative, Dave Williams, Acting Economic Counselor, officially announced the Embassy’s commitment to join Warisan Global as well as the other GEW partners in a collective effort to create new opportunities and businesses in order to drive economic growth and ultimately improve people’s lives around Malaysia, the region and beyond. 

The U.S. Embassy has already established a successful partnership with Warisan Global and is collaborating on several innovative programs designed to further strengthen the entrepreneurial spirit in Malaysia.

The partnership builds on the energy created at the recent Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship.  Speaking of the special role that Malaysia’s youth can play in this area, Mr. Williams noted that, “Global Entrepreneurship Week reflects a sense of collective responsibility to encourage young minds to pursue fresh ideas and unleash the full range of human potential.  Innovative young people need to have the freedom to take risks.  As business owners or as experimenters, they need the chance to learn from mistakes and start again.   We can’t afford to leave out anyone who has an idea, a dream, an invention or innovation and, most importantly, a desire to work hard to make that a reality.”

Dhakshinamoorthy “Dash” Balakrishnan, Chief Executive Officer of Warisan Global, Country Host for GEW in Malaysia, who was also one of two Malaysians selected to represent the country at the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship in Washington DC in April 2010, “The entrepreneur today has to be global. He cannot afford to look inwards. The Global Entrepreneurship Week offers a start-up entrepreneur just that – the global perspective and connectivity. The various signature activities that are being organized at the global level will help drive this awareness deep in the entrepreneur’s early life – to be competitive, to be global and to be opportunity focused.”

He then added, “the government and policy makers enable the environment to be conducive to this pursuit by ensuring resources are mobile, encouraging successful members of the community to give back to society in projects that create the next generation of entrepreneurs and ensure change is seen as a positive factor. Together, both society and the entrepreneur have to celebrate success and ensure failure is not frowned upon.” He concluded by saying “We thank our partners,  sponsors and catalysts for being a part of this movement and ecosystem to help contribute to an Entrepreneurial Malaysia; by organizing a large number of activities and also spearheading the deep dive activities.”

Today’s event also welcomed Menara Kuala Lumpur (Menara KL) as the venue sponsor for this GEW 2010 launch. Though, fresh and new to GEW and entrepreneurial activities, Menara KL is poised that its participation in GEW 2010 will add value along with great opportunities.  In coming on board as a partner to GEW, this is also an opportunity for Menara Kuala Lumpur to take another  step with their Tower of Hope program to promote entrepreneurship to local Malaysians.
 
“We are very pleased that Menara Kuala Lumpur is a part of the Global Entrepreneurship Week celebration not only in Malaysia, but also in this region. We are fully supporting this event and hope that many more Malaysians will face up to the challenge to be an entrepreneur.” said Menara Kuala Lumpur’s General Manager of Public Relations & Events, Zainal  Hj Abd Aziz.

The event also witnessed an exchange of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Warisan Global, the Malaysian Country Host for GEW and Yayasan Inovasi Malaysia (YIM), which formalized a partnership to roll out several GEW activities to promote innovation and entrepreneurship such as the Inspire Ideas Competition and the Folktale Writing Competition. The MOU also formalized the appointment of YIM as GEW Malaysai 2010’s Innovation Catalyst Partner to drive GEW activities in Malaysia centred around innovation.

 “Yayasan Inovasi Malaysia (YIM) is very pleased to be involved in GEW as a Catalyst Partner. The noble goal of the GEW to inspire young people to embrace innovation, imagination and creativity are very much in line with our purpose of championing innovation, and by doing so, to mobilize Malaysians to embrace and practice Creativity and Innovation,” said Dr. Raslan Ahmad, CEO of Yayasan Inovasi Malaysia.
  

The event concluded with the 8 Catalyst Partners sharing their commitment in driving entrepreneurship through their respective domains.

For more information on GEW Malaysia 2010, kindly visit www.gewmalaysia.com.

Asia Pacific Correspondent : Rani Wemel
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