The Centennial Fund established with a Royal Decree to help young Saudi men and women participated in the G20 Young Entrepreneurs Summit (YES) that concluded Tuesday in Toronto, Canada. Entrepreneurs, academics, government officials and youth entrepreneurship organizations from G20 nations including representatives from the Centennial Fund of Saudi Arabia met in Toronto to discuss ways to harness the potential of young entrepreneurs worldwide. The Centennial Fund was established in 2004 with a mandate to help budding Saudi entrepreneurs achieve financial independence through self-employment or start their own commercially successful businesses. The idea of establishing the Centennial Fund was floated in 1999 and later emerged as a requirement to start programs that support young people to reduce the unemployment rate in Saudi Arabia and the development of the local economy. A specialized committee to study the idea was initiated through access to programs implemented across the world. King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, is in Canada to attend the two-day G20 summit ending Sunday. The summit aims to throw light on international economic developments after the financial crisis that hit the world last year. YES challenges the world leaders to recognize that young entrepreneurs have the power to lead in the post economic recovery. After two days of discussions and presentations at the Young Entrepreneurs Summit, a communique identifying five key policy issues was signed by the presidents of the delegations attending from G20 countries. The communique was then handed over to John P. Manley and Tony Clement, Minister of Industry to be formally submitted to the G20 Business Summit (B20) in Toronto. The communique provides an important focus for the B20s discussion of entrepreneurship and for the strategic advice it has been asked to provide to G20 finance ministers and heads of state. Tony Clement, Minister of Industry, Vivian Prokop, CEO of the Canadian Youth Business Foundation and Chair of the G20 Youth Entrepreneur Summit presided over the signing of a communique that requests the members of the G20 to pledge their support for youth entrepreneurship around the globe. Hosted by the Canadian Youth Business Foundation (CYBF), the G20 Young Entrepreneur Summit is recognized by the Canadian government as an official G20 event. The communique calls upon the governments of the G20 countries to both recognize that young entrepreneurs have the power to change their lives, their communities, their cultures and their countries and to support the points mentioned in the communique.
