EU-CHINA: THEY MEAN BUSINESS

Unlike at other meetings at European Youth Week, participants arriving for the EU-China Forum on Youth Entrepreneurship didn’t get to drink their coffee straight away. No. Representatives of the world’s second largest economy mean business.

EU AND CHINA: A NEW DAWN

The 'EU-China Forum on Youth Entrepreneurship

In her welcoming speech at the Brussels summit on 19 May, Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, said we should encourage “people-to-people exchanges, where we would share our experiences and find a lot to learn from each other”.

China, with its population of approximately 1.35 billion people, has millions of potential partners. No wonder that the European Union was persuaded to sign a ‘Joint Action Plan’ in the 2011 Year of Youth with China.

The plan has three objectives: to promote intercultural dialogue, to encourage youngsters to support EU-China relations, and to help ensure that the cooperation between policy makers and youth organisations is sustainable beyond 2011.

THE POWER OF YOUTH

In the same breath, Lu Hao, First Secretary of the Chinese Communist Youth, told the assembled audience how China’s GDP growth rate had reached an incredible 10.7% in 2010 – and stressed the focus should always be on the country’s youth.

“Wealth cannot replace the wealth of the spirit, the spirit of our young people to combat,” he said.

“They cannot become entrepreneurs only with their parents’ money. We should give them certain guidance. They become younger and younger, and we should direct them to the emerging creative industries.”

The speech was followed by the story of a 20-year-old entrepreneur, Sabirul Islam, from London. Sabirul’s biggest disappointment was when he got fired by his cousin, when aged 13. In response, he started his own company at the age of 14 and wrote a book about entrepreneurship when he was 17.

Sabirul Islam, speaking on entrepreneurship

“You don’t have to be the best in a certain area. You have to believe in yourself. I got refused by 14 publishers when I wanted to publish my book. At the end, it didn’t cost me a penny, nor did the starting of my own company,” said Sabirul, who now aims to inspire 1 million young people to establish their own businesses worldwide in one year.

The Conference was continued by Tzoanna Tsakona representing the European Confederation of Junior Enterprises (JADE). This non-profit international organisation of enterprises is entirely managed by students. It gathers 20,000 students in 16 European countries as well as 20,000 students through its sister network in Brazil.

Many young entrepreneurs tend to kick off their businesses while still in college, and some speakers stressed that children should be taught entrepreneurial skills in elementary and high school, because later would be too late.

Young Chinese and Europeans discuss collaboration ideas

The coffee break was short – not a long break, as Europeans are used to. Scarcely ten minutes passed before the waiter shouted, “Back to the conference room! Time to make some money!”

And that says it all. This is why China earns respect – and much more than many Europeans think. An exchange of ideas and encouraging words for a common entrepreneurship spirit between the EU and China already helps make the world turn.

Hopefully, businesses and up-and-coming entrepreneurs on both sides will have seized this opportunity to do a few interesting deals by lunch time – if that’s what comes from having a 10-minute coffee break, maybe it’s not such a bad idea after all.