The three-day event was inaugurated by Minister of Commerce and Industry Tawfiq Al-Rabiah on behalf of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah on Saturday. Over 2,000 entrepreneurs and 140 local and international speakers participated in the conference.
Education Minister Prince Faisal bin Abdullah, Chairman of the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies Prince Turki Al-Faisal and Labor Minister Adel Fakeih delivered keynote speeches during the course of the three-day event.
Delivering the closing keynote address, former South Korean Prime Minister Un-Chan Chung said the “three mores” were essential to creating a society of educated people who can aspire to a hopeful future.
“First, we should be ‘more open.’ Together with knowledge, open mindedness is critical to entrepreneurship. Unlike inventors and discoverers, entrepreneurs must put their new ideas and findings into reality through the market. However, they cannot do this alone. Therefore, for more entrepreneurs to emerge, the mindset of a society must be open enough to embrace new ideas and to mobilize people quickly to work together,” he said.
Chung stressed the importance of education in creating open minds, and urged Saudi Arabia to encourage its young people to study overseas and meet and interact with peers in other countries. “Only then can Saudi Arabia acquire and retain the leadership in shaping new ideas and entrepreneurial solutions for the uncertain times we live in,” he said.
The former premier said South Korea needs to channel its new confidence into the promotion of prosperity, peace and stability in northeast Asia and the world. “Hopefully, we will pave the way for the young generation of South Korea and Saudi Arabia to work together to create a much better next 50 years,” he said.
Emphasizing the need for compassion, Chung noted: “The rational market, by its very nature, is not concerned with social justice and fairness. Capitalism should be rooted in sound ethics, but the economic system in the last couple of decades has not talked about ethics. After suffering from the ramifications of the global financial crisis, people who are not fortunate enough to maintain economic power have just started to question the raison d’être of the neoliberal economic system.”
Chung, who has led the Commission on Shared Growth for Large Corporations and SMEs since leaving the premier’s office, criticized the corporate conglomerates for taking the fair share of small and medium enterprises from the economy.
Invoking the history of South Korea and strong bilateral relations between the Kingdom and his country, Chung expressed hope the two countries would work together to make a positive impact on the global economy and policy-making, particularly in promoting entrepreneurship.
