CAAYE and CII host annual summit for young entrepreneurs

Over 200 young entreprenuers from Commonwealth-Asia nations attend.

The CAAYE Young Entrepreneur Summit, aimed at bringing over 200 young entrepreneurs from all the Commonwealth-Asia region countries (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei) concluded today. This 3 day meet was focused towards networking, building business linkages, conduct field studies, attend learning sessions and jointly prepare a set of recommendations to improve the ecosystem of youth entrepreneurship in the form of an official communique that will be submitted to member Governments through the Commonwealth secretariat. The focus of the 2012 edition of the Summit was to share best practices and prepare recommendations for improving “access to finance” to young entrepreneurs.

Commenting on the Summit’s success, Dr. Rahul Mirchandani, Founder President CAAYE said, “Through this summit our aim was to improve the youth entrepreneurship ecosystem. We have confidence in the fact that this summit has paved the way to a better road for business and breaking trade barriers in the Asian Commonwealth. I’m proud to see the sheer participation in numbers and the enthusiasm that these entrepreneurs have displayed.”

Dr. Rahul Mirchandani, yesterday moderated a plenary session with three noted speakers Nita Chowdhury, Secretary – Youth Affairs at Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports Government of India; R. Gopalkrishnan, Director – Tata Sons; and Katherine Ellis, Director-Youth Affairs, Commonwealth Secretariat London, speaking on CAAYE and its vision to building a better youth entrepreneurship ecosystem for budding entrepreneurs, as they are the future of a developing nation.

The final day saw various sessions with distinguished speakers and stalwarts from the industry, discussed topics which imbibe the values of entrepreneurship. These sessions included:

1. Building an Entrepreneur Eco-system Access to Finance, Infrastructure, Regulations & Taxes
2. Education & Skills Development Entrepreneurship as a Career, Education as a Business Opportunity 
3. Breaking Trade Barriers Trading Blocs, Reform in import policies – Shift from protecting ‘producers’ to benefiting ‘consumers’ 
4. Funding young entrepreneurs 
5. Doing business in India
The delegations list included some powerful names like Shaban Khalid, Leader Pakistan delegation to CAAYE Summit and Director – Ittehad steel industries; Devita Saraf – CEO,VU Technologies Pvt Ltd.; Nilesh Vani, Executive Vice President and Chief of Strategy, Aptech Ltd., to name a few.

The evening ended with a very special and inspiring performance; a symphony of music with underprivileged and physically challenged children from Hyderabad Aarabi school of music musical school

About CAAYE:

The Commonwealth-Asia Alliance of Young Entrepreneurs (CAAYE) is a network of young entrepreneurs and the organizations that support them. They have been established to continually promote the cause of young entrepreneurs in our respective countries. They will convene each year and in advance of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting & relevant Commonwealth Ministerial forums to provide a platform to present a united voice of young entrepreneurs.
For more details you can visit them at www.caaye.com