As prepared for delivery
Excellencies, distinguished ministers, ladies and gentlemen,
Welcome to this ministerial round table on investing in future builders.
Entrepreneurs do not wait for perfect conditions. They start businesses in difficult markets, with limited capital, against long odds. They do it because they see a gap before anyone else does. That instinct exists in every country. The question for this room is whether we are making it harder than it needs to be.
I want to make two points before we hear from you. A point about what is happening to the space in which entrepreneurs operate. And a point about what we can do about it.
I start with the space.
The World Investment Report 2026 shows that strategic sectors – AI, semiconductors, clean energy, critical minerals – now account for nearly half of all greenfield investment worldwide, up from one sixth five years ago. Capital is chasing the industries governments have decided are strategic.
The flipside of that is that manufacturing investment outside strategic sectors – the industries that historically gave entrepreneurs in developing countries their first connection to global value chains – fell by about a sixth between 2015–2019 and 2021–2025. In the least developed countries, 85% of investment promotion agencies reported project downsizing or cancellations in the past three years.
What this means is that the industries where a small firm in Dhaka or Dakar could become a supplier, meet international standards and grow are contracting. Entrepreneurs in those countries are not starting with less ambition. They are starting with less room.
This brings me to what we can do.
When builders cannot build, it is not because of a lack of ideas. It is because of the obstacles they meet when they try to turn ideas into firms. Registering a business takes weeks in some countries and hours in others. Early-stage finance reaches capital cities but rarely the towns where most entrepreneurs live. Regulations designed for large incumbents become walls for small entrants. And too many entrepreneurs, especially women and young founders, build in isolation – without the mentors, the networks and the market connections that make the difference between getting by and scaling up.
These are not problems that entrepreneurs can solve alone. They are problems that policy creates – or removes.
UN Trade and Development’s Empretec programme has worked alongside entrepreneurs in more than 40 countries for nearly four decades, starting from the realities they face. This morning, we launched the Global Founders Fellowship to connect founders in developing countries with mentors, investors and global markets.
But the most important conversation today is yours. Ministers shape the regulatory environment, the financing landscape, the trade rules. Egypt’s minister of investment knows what it takes to reform frameworks so that small firms can enter markets. Qatar is investing in the infrastructure that connects startups with global capital. UNIDO brings experience from factory floors across the developing world. And Empretec directors from more than 20 countries are here at this Forum – from Cameroon to Jordan, from Guyana to Uganda – people who help founders navigate the obstacles every day.
Excellencies,
Every economy renews itself through the people who see a gap and decide to fill it. The most productive investment any country can make is room for those people to build.
I look forward to the discussion. I thank you.