G20 Meetings: Five Initiatives to Address Obstacles Facing Youth Entrepreneurship

Journalists sit in the media center during the meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, February 22, 2020/File Photo
Journalists sit in the media center during the meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, February 22, 2020/File Photo
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G20 Meetings: Five Initiatives to Address Obstacles Facing Youth Entrepreneurship

Journalists sit in the media center during the meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, February 22, 2020/File Photo
Journalists sit in the media center during the meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, February 22, 2020/File Photo

The Entrepreneur Union Summit, which is held on the sidelines of the G20 meetings, currently chaired by Saudi Arabia, announced on Sunday the adoption of five initiatives to promote youth entrepreneurship around the world.

Those include addressing the obstacles faced by young entrepreneurs in obtaining capital, supporting training programs and entrepreneurship education, developing a sustainable future economy, in addition to resolving trade barriers and enhancing economic and social resilience by taking advantage of digitization.

“Despite the economic difficulties that we have witnessed during the Covid-19 pandemic, the year 2020 has highlighted the flexibility of entrepreneurs and emerging companies in their quest to develop new opportunities and find creative ways to display their excellence,” Prince Fahd bin Mansour bin Nasser, Chairman of the Young Entrepreneurs Union Summit of the Saudi G20, told Asharq Al-Awsat.

He continued: “SMEs and entrepreneurs are among the main business makers in the G20 countries. They employ more than two-thirds of the workforce in the private sector, and provide more than 80 percent of net job growth.”

The summit’s closing statement was based on the recommendations of the research carried out on the entrepreneurship system in the G20 countries and came in line with the priorities of the B20 business groups, especially with regards to development and employment within SMEs.

During the meetings, participants stated that at a time when the world begins to repair the economic damage caused by the outbreak of the coronavirus and to search for ways to pay record levels of government debts, the potential of entrepreneurs must be harnessed to stimulate a new generation that would work on sustainable and inclusive growth.



Tesla's China Sales Have Best Month of the Year in August

FILE PHOTO: A staff member attends to customers inside a Tesla Model Y car at a showroom of the US electric vehicle (EV) maker in Beijing, China, Feb. 4, 2023. REUTERS/Florence Lo/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A staff member attends to customers inside a Tesla Model Y car at a showroom of the US electric vehicle (EV) maker in Beijing, China, Feb. 4, 2023. REUTERS/Florence Lo/File Photo
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Tesla's China Sales Have Best Month of the Year in August

FILE PHOTO: A staff member attends to customers inside a Tesla Model Y car at a showroom of the US electric vehicle (EV) maker in Beijing, China, Feb. 4, 2023. REUTERS/Florence Lo/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A staff member attends to customers inside a Tesla Model Y car at a showroom of the US electric vehicle (EV) maker in Beijing, China, Feb. 4, 2023. REUTERS/Florence Lo/File Photo

Tesla's sales in China logged their best month for the year so far in August, with the US electric vehicle maker benefiting from brisk sales in smaller cities.
Tesla said it sold more than 63,000 cars in the world's biggest auto market last month, a hefty 37% jump from July, but probably still down from August last year when it sold 64,694.
While an encouraging improvement, its performance lags major Chinese rivals by a wide margin.
BYD, the world's biggest EV maker, said its China passenger vehicle sales surged 35% in August from a year earlier to a record monthly high of 370,854. Other local EV competitors including Leapmotor and Li Auto also reported higher sales.
Like many other automakers, Tesla has been badly bruised by a protracted price war in China where economic growth has also been sluggish and consumer confidence fragile. Its China sales declined 5% for the first half of the year.
Although Tesla has cut its local sales force as part of a global downsizing, a number of factors have helped recent sales momentum.
Tesla has since April offered zero-interest loans of up to five years for buyers, while several local governments have made its cars eligible for official car purchases in recent weeks.
It also received a key regulatory nod earlier this year, with the country's top auto industry association saying that data collection by Tesla vehicles was compliant with regulations, allowing Tesla cars to enter some government compounds that they used to be banned from.
An analysis by China Merchants Bank International of Tesla's China sales in July showed a 78% year-on-year increase in deliveries in so-called tier-three cities while its sales in second-tier cities such as Hangzhou and Nanjing rose 47%.
Separate data from the China Passenger Car Association for Tesla China-made vehicles which includes exports showed sales grew 3% in August from a year earlier to 86,697 units.
Deliveries of its China-made Model 3 and Model Y vehicles rose 17% from July.
Tesla plans to produce a six-seat variant of its Model Y car in China from late 2025, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said. The move is aimed at increasing the appeal of its best-selling yet aging EV.