Ashraf AboArafe
The Kingdom’s delegation participated in the G20YEA Summit for the year 2024, which was held from June 12 to 16, in the cities of Goiânia and Florinaples, Brazil, headed by His Royal Highness Prince Fahd bin Mansour bin Nasser bin Abdulaziz.
Participation in the Kingdom’s pavilion included several entities from the government and private sectors to review the efforts and services provided to entrepreneurs and investment in startups and small and medium enterprises.
In his speech during the opening of the summit, His Highness appreciated the outstanding achievements made by the Kingdom in creating a stimulating regulatory environment for young entrepreneurs, in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, noting that the Kingdom recorded a 108% growth in the number of small and medium-sized companies since 2016, and ranked first in financing Venture capital in the Middle East and North Africa region, in addition to achieving 50% market share in the region, with an annual growth of 33%.
He added that one of the most important goals of the vision is to support youth, especially since they constitute 70% of society, stressing the role of Saudi women in achieving sustainable development goals.
The Saudi delegation expressed its pride in highlighting a number of pioneering local projects that reflect the Saudi identity, stressing the importance of enhancing cooperation with other countries in the field of entrepreneurship, exchanging ideas, and creating new investment opportunities.
The delegation also participated in several plenary sessions and bilateral meetings that focused on empowering entrepreneurs, exploring opportunities for cooperation, and enhancing fruitful partnerships.
The Saudi delegation’s participation was distinguished by providing workshops in cooperation with the participating parties on the pioneering environment in the Kingdom and investment and residency opportunities.
These events provided the Saudi delegation with an opportunity to exchange experiences with global leaders within the G20, and to sign multiple partnership agreements, most notably the signing of agreements between the NetZero platform with Brazilian companies and cities such as the city of Jatay, in coordination with the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture.
The Saudi initiative will be implemented in Brazil, emphasizing the quality of the Kingdom’s technical innovations and the possibility of transferring them to Brazil and countries around the world. This partnership included planting the first tree in Brazil, which was technically registered for carbon emission calculations by Net Zero Saudi Arabia (one of the Sidra Program companies) during participation in the summit.
In terms of women’s education, an agreement was signed between the Innovation Training and Evaluation Center accredited by the Global Innovation Center and the Brazilian EW, which works to develop the entrepreneurship environment for women by transferring knowledge through business accelerators.
An exceptional agreement was signed between the Expnor Initiative and the leaders of member organizations of the G20 countries to attract and involve entrepreneurs in the Expo, which will be held in Japan in 2025 and the Expo in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2030.
At the conclusion of the summit, recommendations were signed that will be presented to the leaders of the G20 countries. These 5 recommendations centered on 5 main axes around economic growth, facilitating international business, accelerating the transition to a global circular economy, educating and encouraging a new generation of entrepreneurs, innovation, digitization, and the future of business.
His Royal Highness Prince Fahd bin Mansour bin Nasser expressed his thanks to the State of Brazil for organizing the summit of the Young Entrepreneurs Association in the G20, praising the cooperation that was reflected in the outputs of the work teams, which succeeded in integrating and coordinating the recommendations of member states with the aim of strengthening bridges of sustainable cooperation and opening new horizons. In various economic fields.
