Press Releases: Remarks at the Opening of the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Summit

By Newsroom America Feeds at 23 Jun 15:42; see also.

image from

Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Stanford University Memorial Auditorium
Stanford, California
July 6, 2016

Excerpt:

My thanks to Rick Stengel, the State Department’s point person for public diplomacy, and to Charlie Rivkin – he’s one of our top voices in the State Department on economic and business affairs – for their vision in helping to organize this GES, and to Ambassador David Thorne for his role in helping us to take this message out on a global basis. ...

I want to particularly thank our hosts here at Stanford, a learning institution that so embodies this area’s tradition of innovation that President John Hennessy is known as the godfather of Silicon Valley. ...

We need you to establish your businesses with two frames in mind: to create new products, yes, and do well, yes, turn a profit, help your local community certainly, but also to tackle the enormous global challenges that we face. And in the end – of all the problems that we face, I just want to narrow this down for you to think about it in the context of your meetings in the next days and of what you decide to do when you go out of here and take what you’ve learned or pursue your dream. I want you to think about these interconnected challenges.

The first is violent extremism and the emergence of radical non-state actors who have no agenda outside of the frustrations that they exploit, the bigotry that they espouse, and the conflicts that they inflame. ...

Our second challenging, literally growing in urgency every single day, is to preserve the health of our planet in the face of climate change and other environmental dangers. ...

Now, our third generational challenge is tied to the first two. It is to improve overall governance capacity all over the world so that leaders everywhere fight corruption, so they earn public confidence and inspire unity and a sense of vision. ...

And you may not realize it, but you also provide a highly visible and very effective rebuttal to the propaganda of violent extremist groups. Because your optimism provides an alternative to their nihilism. Because you’re trying to build the brighter future that in fact these folks are determined to prevent. Because you are living a narrative of modern civilization and progress that is diametrically opposed to the dark worldview of Daesh and its ilk, the very enemies of civilization itself. ...

So these are our shared challenges, my friends, as you gather here for two days of total input and stimulation and listen to our common calls to action. These are the areas where we can and must be partners. And it is for these reasons among many more that the Obama Administration has made supporting you, supporting entrepreneurs, a top priority in our diplomacy and foreign policy. ...

[L]ed by Ambassador Thorne, we’ve sent teams of public and private sector leaders on innovation roadshows across Asia to strengthen ties and support new business formation in critical and fast-growing regions. ...

GES is about daring. It’s about knowing your power to change the world – and then acting on it. It’s about leading our planet towards a future of prosperity, peace, and progress. And I look forward to joining with you and all of you as we realize that vision in the years ahead.

The Office of Website Management, Bureau of Public Affairs, manages this site as a portal for information from the U.S. State Department.External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views or privacy policies contained therein.

http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2016/06/259016.htm