US woos Muslims with entrepreneurship programme

The United States on Wednesday launched a 'global entrepreneurship programme' and several other projects in an effort to bridge the gap with the Muslim world and take its engagement with the community across the globe to a new level of mutual trust and friendship.
 
The series of announcements, made by secretary of state Hillary Clinton at the conclusion of a two-day meeting, was greeted by applause from the entrepreneurs from more than 50 countries who were invited by US president Barack Obama.

"Relationships between nations are sustained by the connections between their peoples," Clinton told a gathering of the entrepreneurs in Washington. "You have the power not only to drive economic growth, but promote shared prosperity, call for open and accountable governance, help expand access to services like health care and education."

Clinton said the global entrepreneurship programme's first pilot programme had been launched in Egypt, and the US would soon launch a second programme in Indonesia, before expanding it to a dozen countries within the next two years.

"This summit reflects the new approach to foreign policy that President Obama described last year at Cairo University," Clinton said. "One that we have been putting into practice through partnerships based on shared values, mutual respect and mutual responsibility."

In her speech to more than 250 entrepreneurs at the conclusion of the presidential summit on entrepreneurship, Clinton specially mentioned successful Indian entrepreneur Shaheen Mistri for her educational programmes in slums.

"Entrepreneurs are tackling problems of poverty and inequity, like Shaheen Mistri, whose non-profit body provides after-school tutoring to children in slums in India," Clinton said as she referred to stories of several similar successful entrepreneurs. "They're closing gaps in healthcare delivery and access to capital, like Amjid Ali, a banker who leads health and finance outreach programmes for South Asian immigrants in England.