Last
week, Secretary Pritzker delivered remarks on the leadership of the Commerce
Department and the entire Obama Administration in promoting entrepreneurship
across the United States at the 2015 State of Entrepreneurship Address, hosted
by the Kauffman Foundation. Her remarks were delivered to various business
leaders, policy experts, non-profits, and government officials to address the
impact and importance of America’s entrepreneurs in our country’s economy.
Secretary
Pritzker highlighted the Commerce Department’s role in ensuring there is an
infrastructure of opportunity to support entrepreneurship domestically and
internationally. As the driving force behind the Administration’s focus on
entrepreneurship, the Commerce Department partners with businesses to set the
conditions for innovators and new businesses to test new ideas, take risks, find
financing and customers, and ultimately thrive. Many of the Department’s core
responsibilities help create the essential infrastructure of opportunity for
entrepreneurs – whether issuing patents that protect intellectual property,
making investments in local economic development, collecting and disseminating
data to inform better decision making, expanding access to broadband, or
protecting a free and open internet.
Specifically,
since the launch of the Department’s Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship
(PAGE) initiative in collaboration with the White House, Department of State
and U.S. Agency for International Development, 11 entrepreneurs serve in an
ongoing dialogue with policy makers globally to create an environment where
creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship can grow and thrive. In the coming
months, PAGE will expand so more business leaders can share their experiences
as CEOs and share recommendations to better support the business community both
at home and abroad. The Commerce Department has also re-established the
National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE), which
brings together top academics, business and non-profit leaders to advise the
Department on innovation, entrepreneurship, and industry-driven skills training
to support the current and next generation of entrepreneurs.
In
her remarks, Secretary Pritzker discussed the launch of the Startup Global
pilot program, an initiative that will begin in the next few months and feature
a series of incubators in Cincinnati, Nashville, Arlington, and Washington, D.C.,
where entrepreneurs can get technical assistance and information on how to
export.
