Press release – reshared from UNIDO

Vienna, 12 September 2020 – Mr. Yuko Yasunaga, Managing Director, Directorate of Corporate Services and Operations of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization and Ms. Farshida Zafar, Director, Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship (ECE) signed a Memorandum of Understanding, reiterating their intention to expand their partnership beyond the existing technical assistance project portfolio to contribute to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

UNIDO and ECE aim to develop a long-term relationship to advance sustainable and inclusive economic development by fostering innovative ecosystems for start-ups and scale-ups in developing countries and countries with economies in transition.

The organisations enjoy a successful track record of cooperation nurturing the ICT-related entrepreneurial ecosystems through improved exposure to international expertise and technology. In their previous initiatives, UNIDO and ECE joined efforts to reinforce capacities of innovation ecosystem actors and entrepreneurial support organisations in order to support innovation-intensive and knowledge-driven economic transition.

Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship, part of Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) in the Netherlands, is the leading educational centre for entrepreneurship in Europe. As a valorisation centre, the Centre translates academic insights and research into practical frameworks to enhance people’s entrepreneurial competencies. In a quest to encourage entrepreneurship not only at home but internationally as well, ECE develops, implements and executes programmes to train entrepreneurial skills abroad. All of their activities aim to strengthen local entrepreneurship ecosystems by bringing together different (local or international) organizations.

In its cooperation with UNIDO, the Centre provides its entrepreneurial expertise by engaging in developing and conducting capacity-building programmes that aim to enhance the knowledge and skills of entrepreneurs, mentors, policymakers and other stakeholders.

UNIDO and ECE operate on the shared vision that innovation does not take place in isolation but rather, is the result of interactions between different service providers and support organizations. A well-functioning innovation ecosystem provides startups and scaleups with the necessary access to talent, capital and markets. This cooperation will help facilitate these processes and reinforce linkages to increase effective support for developing innovation-intensive and knowledge-driven economies.

Interested to know more about our international projects? Reach out to Jip Dresia at dresia@ece.nl.