HOLLAND – Prime Minister Mark Rutte and the American Foreign Minister Mike Pompeo opened the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in The Hague on Monday afternoon. Some 2 thousand entrepreneurs, investors and representatives of government organizations from 134 countries will meet and make deals at the business summit over the next two days.

In addition to entrepreneurs and others from the business world, a number of prominent people like Queen Maxima and Ivanka Trump will also attend the summit. 

At the opening on Monday, both Rutte and Pompeo expressed satisfaction that the summit is taking place in the Netherlands this year and stressed the importance of innovative entrepreneurship to improve the life of people around the world.

GES2019 offers many possibilities, Pompeo said. “For established multinational companies and scale-ups. For institutional and private investors. Actually for the whole world. Because the Global Entrepreneurship Summit has a long tradition of building contacts that make the world better and at the same time produce healthy profits.”

Prime Minister Rutte spoke about the role the business world can play in tackling the major challenges facing the world. “Climate change, food production, connectivity, energy and health. It is crystal clear that society is your next big customer. It is clear that sustainability is by ar the largest business issue of our time. And for that, innovation is crucial”, he said. 

According to Minister Sigrid Kaag of Foreign Trade and chairman of the summit, GES2019 holds enormous opportunities for businesses. “It is a moment to think about business solutions to sustainability problems in water, logistics and healthcare. Huge opportunities for companies, opportunities to bring about change and of course opportunities to create jobs”, she said to NOS.

Last week Kaag said to AD that companies participating in GES2019 may sign contracts worth many millions of euros. According to the Minister, previous editions of the congress together yielded 1 billion euros.

The Global Entrepreneurship Summit this year was jointly organized by the Dutch and American Ministries of Foreign Affairs. The summit was first initiated by former U.S. president Barack Obama. It happens every two years. This year is the first time the summit is held in Europe, according to NOS.