Biden: Entrepreneurship Requires Free Speech, Free Thinking
By Stephen Kaufman
Staff Writer
Washington - Governments must allow their people to speak and think freely if they want to encourage entrepreneurship and the economic rewards it can bring to their societies, Vice President Biden said, arguing that the most valuable resource on earth is the human mind.
"The true wealth of a nation is found in the creative minds of its people and their freedom and ability to bring those ideas to life - to develop not only new products, but the technologies that will create entirely new industries, entire new markets, entire new opportunities," Biden told the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Turkey December 3.
The world cannot find prosperity if it does not continue to innovate and create new industries, and that cannot happen unless governments guarantee the right to "think different," Biden said, referring to the phrase coined by the late Steve Jobs, founder of Apple computers, and he added, "Those who think the same do not hold the promise of progress."
The summit brought together 275 Muslim entrepreneurs from 59 countries to discuss ways to build an environment where entrepreneurship can thrive and to support cooperation and best practices among entrepreneurs. It was a follow-up to the April 26-27, 2010, Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship, hosted by President Obama in Washington.
Biden said there is a connection between entrepreneurship and the desire for a better life, dignity, free speech and good governance that is transforming the Middle East and North Africa through the "Arab Awakening."
"I suspect that many of you assembled here in this magnificent hall today, whether or not you've ever been politically active, felt some of the same affinity that many of us felt for those in the streets who were seeking to build something far larger than just something for themselves," Biden said.
"That's because democratic revolutions like the ones in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya - and the ones still unfolding in Syria and Yemen - are imbued ... [with] a spirit that requires risk and initiative, steadfast determination and a unifying idea. They aim to do more than merely change the government which is in power, but also to end practices like authoritarianism, corruption, the stifling of free expression - practices that make political and economic freedom impossible. And they take advantage and have taken advantage of the technologies of their time," he said.
Aspiring entrepreneurs naturally dream and take chances, and fostering entrepreneurship "is not just about crafting the right economic policy or developing the best educational curriculum. It's about creating a free political climate in which ideas and innovation can flourish."
Governments must protect liberties and allow for vibrant civil societies in order to unlock the marketplace of ideas that will help their economies become more competitive, Biden said, because "it's hard to think different if you're not free to think and openly express what you're thinking."
The vice president said that countries that attempt to "have it both ways" by limiting free expression on the Internet while trying to keep the technology available for business use will ultimately find a "dead end" because it is not possible to build walls between the different ways to use the Internet.
"There isn't a separate economic Internet, a political Internet and a social Internet. There is simply an Internet, and it must remain free and open," he said.
Rather than squander half of their populations, he said, countries also need to empower women to participate equally in the economy.
"In case you haven't figured it out, women are just as bright as any man. Study after study has shown that those nations that refuse to empower women to participate in economic affairs will be and have been left behind," he said.
Biden also said countries that fail to protect intellectual property will discourage entrepreneurship because, by allowing intellectual theft, they will never develop their own indigenous capacity to create, and innovators will lose the incentive to take the necessary risks to develop their own ideas if they fear they will be stolen.
Because of the Arab Awakening, "all has changed, changed utterly. A terrible beauty has been born," Biden said, quoting the Irish poet William Butler Yeats.
"We are at an inflection point in world history," and it will be impossible for the world to return to the path it was on prior to the uprisings, he said.
But the vice president said he is optimistic because young entrepreneurs such as those attending the summit are in a better position to change the world for the better.
"You have a chance like no other generation of entrepreneurs to direct the world, to steer it, to bend the curve in the direction of progress, openness, [and] humanity," he said.
(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State.)
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