The 2017 G20 YEA Communiqué — Recommendations for Strengthening International Youth Entrepreneurship (And Fighting Unemployment)
The world needs a more innovative approach for global growth and employment. Growth is slowing down and unemployment, especially among youth, is rising or remaining at a high level. Demographic changes, technological advances and increased mobility are profoundly changing the world of work and are expected to do so even more in the future. A concrete solution emerges now more than ever: it is youth entrepreneurship. Young entrepreneurs are more easily inclined to try new business ideas, and they do no let themselves be stopped by national boundaries. They think at an international scale by keeping an eye on the possibilities that the world offers to them instead of focusing on what the limitations are.
However, on a global scale, they face hindrances induced by the barriers set by many countries in regards to international business — barriers that are in certain cases reinforced instead of lowered. Therefore, an international voice is needed to emphatically express the requests of young entrepreneurs worldwide and to present recommendations to state leaders on how to create more business opportunities and foster youth entrepreneurship on a global level — especially with the aim to fight youth unemployment.
Since 2010, the G20 Young Entrepreneurs´ Alliance (G20 YEA), carrying the voice of 500.000 young entrepreneurs within the G20 countries, is carried by dynamic entrepreneurs under 40, which are carefully selected by the most active and important organizations representing them within their respective countries. The representatives of these organizations meet every year at a G20 YEA Summit prior to the G20 conference. Before each Summit, they examine what the G20 countries’ shared contexts are in regards to youth unemployment and international business and commerce in order to articulate recommendations for the annual G20 YEA Communiqué, which aims to address the most pressing issues raised.
I was able to participate on behalf of Germany in five of these G20 YEA Summits: first as a delegate in 2013 in Moscow, in 2014 in Sydney and in 2015 in Istanbul, and then as the G20 YEA President for Germany in 2016 in Beijing. In June 2017, I had the pleasure of hosting the G20 YEA Summit on behalf of JCI Germany (Wirtschaftsjunioren Deutschland, www.wjd.de) in Berlin, which 400 young entrepreneurs attended. During these past five years, I had the honor of working on each annual Communiqué and also of raising my voice in 2016 and 2017 in the B20 Taskforces on behalf of the G20 Young Entrepreneurs´ Alliance and JCI Germany. Considering the development of the G20 YEA Communiqué during the last five years, I am extremely pleased that the 2017 G20 YEA Communiqué is very pointed — it consists of three general recommendations and three specific requests.
The whole article with the recommendations and requests can be found here:
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Carsten Lexa is the President of the G20 Young Entrepreneurs´ Alliance Germany and the host of the German G20 YEA 2017 Berlin Summit (link to the Summit website). Since June he is also the Chairman of the Steering Committee of the G20 YEA. A corporate lawyer by profession and equipped with his own law firm (link to the law firm website), he advises international clients, who want to do business in Germany, in corporate and commercial legal matters. He is, by invitation of the European Commission, a participant in the annual SME Assembly. He is also a member of the B20 Task Forces and since 2014 a member of the national board of JCI Germany (WJD — Wirtschaftsjunioren Deutschland), the biggest organization for young leaders and entrepreneurs in Germany. Interested in more information about Carsten Lexa? Follow him on Linkedin (/carstenlexa) and Twitter (@kanzlei_lexa), “like” his Facebook fan page (@kanzlei.lexa) or visit the blog (Link).
