GEW 17 Nov - 23 Nov 2014
Iran
Brazil
A new dawn of opportunity
in an ancient land
A success story
For the third year Brazil has the
largest GEW and aims to use its
strength to promote important
changes for the entrepreneurial
environment
G
EW has enjoyed six successful years in
Brazil. In that time 700 partners have helped
to hold 4,000 events for more than 2 million
participants and 40,000 social media followers.
This popularity proves that the entrepreneurial culture
has spread throughout the country with millions
believing that it drives economic growth, generates
jobs and creates opportunities.
IRANIAN ENTREPRENEURSHIP
IN ACTION
GEW Iran is supported
by MAPNA Group. This
is the epitome of Iranian
entrepreneurship: a group
with 39 subsidiaries engaged
in the development and
implementation of power, oil
and gas, railway transportation
and other industrial projects, as
well as equipment manufacture
and the necessary investment
schemes they need. Since
1992, it has completed over
100 projects worth over €30
billion, manufacturing 95
different commodities and
providing over 50 services.
With more than 12,000 direct
Impact of GEW 2013
Country Iran
Activities
10
Partners 14
Participants 2,200
Details http://ir.gew.co
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GEW Magazine
employees, the company
has a significant role in
Iran’s growing economy and
infrastructure and has the
expertise to contribute to the
economic growth of other
countries too.
“We owe our success to our
high-caliber, knowledgeable
management, technical,
engineering, financial and
economic experts who are all
committed to improving and
growing the company as they
reach the group’s goals,” says
Abbas Aliabadi, chairman &
president, MAPNA Group
Abbas Aliabadi
But the country also has a highly educated
and experienced workforce that is eager
to bring its expertise to other countries
around the world. This is in line with
Iran’s desire to develop its own economy
while also helping to contribute to the
development of its neighbours. One
way to do this is to encourage Iranian
entrepreneurs to bring their skills and
knowledge in everything from finance and
engineering to project management and
services to the world.
Within Iran itself, there are excellent
opportunities for entrepreneurs and
investment in infrastructure and supply
chain through public/private partnerships,
something that Iran recognises as offering
a solid foundation for the nation’s future
economic growth.
While these areas of growth amongst the
traditionally strong Iranian industries of
petroleum, petrochemicals and transport
may be obvious, it is worth noting that
there is a whole generation of highly
qualified Iranian graduates who have
specialised in power generation, oil and
gas, IT, mining and healthcare.
Despite this, there are still very few people that are
willing to take the risk of starting their own business.
Amongst those that do, even fewer can be considered
high impact entrepreneurs. Brazil has only 34,000 high
growth companies, less than 1% of the total, which are
responsible for 50% of the new jobs generated in the
recent past.
The economy is growing, in all sectors,
and this means there are opportunities for
Irianian entrepreneurs and for international
investment practically everywhere.
Iran Entrepreneurship Association
GEW is being hosted by Iran
Entrepreneurship Association (IEA), a notfor-profit organisation that champions the
entrepreneurial spirit in Iran by providing
assistance to startup businesses. IEA helps
to develop local business communities,
improve and increase access to latest
training and education, ease enterprise
regulations and policies and to attract
media attention to startups. It also works to
support the development of accelerators
and incubators, increase access to finance
for new businesses, attract local and
international investment and to empower
other NGOs and institutes that support
entrepreneurship.
The week in Iran
Last year was Iran’s first as a participant
in GEW but, even from a standing start,
the committee still managed to organise
more than 20 events in conjunction with
15 partners. Once again this year, Iran
sees GEW as a golden opportunity and
a window into the country. There is a
new programme of events planned that
promise to connect Iran’s entrepreneurs
to the global grid of ideas, innovation
and investment while, at the same time,
building a stronger entrepreneurship
ecosystem at home.
GEW host organisation:
Iran Entrepreneurship Association
The challenge is to create an entrepreneurial
environment in which people feel confident in starting
up their own businesses and to create the conditions in
which those companies can thrive.
To do that, the Brazilian government has taken an
active approach to fostering entrepreneurship with
many new initiatives to assist startups, providing
them with funding (e.g. FINEP BNDES), strengthening
,
mentoring networks (e.g Sebrae, Endeavor, InovAtiva
Brasil, Startup Brasil, SEED), providing facilities to
open a company in less than a week (e.g. Sala do
Empreendedor, Portal do Empreendedor) and
expanding the benefit of special tax regulations for
SMEs (Simples Nacional).
More than a week
Throughout the month of November, public
and private sectors will cooperate to foster
entrepreneurship and promote a more conducive
environment for enterprise. The plans for 2014
include a national advertisement campaign on the
challenges entrepreneurs face in Brazil, a petition
around new tax regulations, a challenge to reward
and promote the most successful initiatives on
entrepreneurial education in the country as well as
flagships events to engage government leaders.
GEW host organisation: Endeavor Brazil
Impact of GEW 2013
Country Brazil
Activities
4,127
Partners 598
Participants 1,678,250
Details www.semanaglobal.org.br
Endeavor Brazil
Around the world, Endeavor is the leading supporter
of high impact entrepreneurs. This is true in Brazil
too, where Endeavor’s primary goal is to increase
the number of high impact entrepre