Commonwealth Asia Young Entrepreneur Summit Held

LONDON:
The Commonwealth Alliance of Young Entrepreneurs-Asia (CAYE-Asia), the premier network of networks of young entrepreneurs in Asia and the organisations that support them, came together for ‘The 5th anniversary edition of the Annual Commonwealth-Asia Young Entrepreneur Summit’ : Business Across Borders which was held in London, United Kingdom from 07-09 December 2016.
This year’s theme ‘Business Across Borders’ brought together the Asian Diaspora in the UK and the CAYE-Asia to promote cross-border trade and collaboration. The summit served as a celebration of five years of sustained high impact work that the Alliance has carried out in the Asian Region, covering India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Brunei and Nepal.
Young Indians, which is an integral part of Confederation of Indian Industry, is also a founding member of the alliance, represented India this year at ‘The 5th edition of CAYE-Asia Summit’ in London from 07-09 December 2016. Yi is the only organization from India which has participated in this summit consecutively for the last 5 years, since the establishment of CAYE-Asia in 2011. 14 Young Entrepreneur
s from India representing various sectors like Silk, Handicraft, Steel & Foundry, Financial Services, Automobiles, Agriculture, Education etc participated in the summit. The Yi Delegation to this summit was led by Akhilesh Agarwal, Chair, Yi (Kochi Chapter) & Managing Director, Acumen Commodities (I) Ltd.
The three day summit was attended by over 100 young entrepreneurs and close to 20 speakers from various CAYE-Asia member nations including India, Pakistan, Singapore, Malaysia, Nepal, UK & diaspora from the countries resident in the UK. They participated in various sessions which were centered around the main theme of the summit which was ‘Business Across Borders’. The Sessions of the summit witnessed eminent speakers like Syed Ibne Abbas, High Commissioner, High Commission for the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in London, Andrew Davenport, CEO, Youth Business International, Faraz Khan, CEO & Co-Founder, SEED Ventures, Maila Reeves, Regional Director, London, The South of England, Alex Mitchell, Founder of Causarma & Kit Us Out, Co-Founder of Young Brits Network and Chair of IoD 99 and Wales, Forward Ladies and Commonwealth Business Women Network to name a few.
Dr Rahul Mirchandani, Executive Director, Aries Agro Ltd, India & Founder President, CAYE-Asia while moderating the Session on the theme ‘Business Across Borders’ stressed upon the fact that Asia is fast changing with the region contributing close to 60% to world GDP and lamented that trading within the member countries was very low. He believed that CAYE-A will be the alliance that actively addressed bridging this gap and has young entrepreneurs as the drivers of change to build business linkages in Asia and promote socially responsible businesses, which earn ‘profit with purpose’.
The summit this year also proudly showcased innovation at work and excellence in action through field visits to various successful organizations which was an opportunity for the CAYE-Asia members to interact with UK Entrepreneurs who have created successful enterprises and excelled in their entrepreneurship journey. Institute of Directors, Wayra, Commonwealth Secretariat, Runway East, Tech City, Royal Society of Arts, were the organizations where field visits were organized for the members to witness and learn the global best practices, primarily showcasing excellence in the start up accelerator and incubation ecosystem of the UK.
The Summit concluded on a positive note with Shaban Khalid, President, CAYE-Asia and all CAYE-Asia Country Representatives officially signing the Communique’2016. Akhilesh Agarwal, Chair, Yi (Kochi Chapter) who led the CAYE-Asia Delegation this year signed the same from India. The Communique was handed over to Katherine Ellis, Director, Youth Division, Commonwealth Secretariat who in her valedictory address conveyed that the Commonwealth Secretariat would strongly urge members governments to look at the communique proposals during its interactions at the highest levels of Commonwealth Heads of Government and Ministerial Meetings. Commonwealth Secretariat also urged all country delegations to push for policy change in line with the communique recommendations through discussions at the country specific levels, she stated.