[Unofficial Translation] 

It is a pleasure to meet you all.

Whenever I travel abroad, I find that countries around the world are very keen on supporting young people in starting their own businesses. The reason is because all businesses are initiated by young people.

Even globally respected companies such as J.P. Morgan, one of the world’s leading financial institutions, and Carnegie Steel Company, were all founded by young entrepreneurs.

Today, deep-tech companies have come to the fore, and with the growing importance of digital innovation technology, the startups and ideas of the digitally savvy younger generations are vital. But even beyond that, even 200, 100 years ago, most businesses have been created by young people. This is the first point I would like to emphasize.

It is significant that countries support their citizens in starting their own businesses. Governments should not wait to engage with a business until it has grown large enough to employ many people and become an important factor to the national economy. Growth is achieved when many big corporations emerge from the private sector and contribute significantly to production and GDP, which leads to national growth. Accordingly, national growth is essentially the growth of businesses, and the government’s fundamental role can be said to help businesses grow.

Many governments and leaders are now beginning to realize the simple truth that they should help more young people continue to start new businesses and help them to be not afraid of failure.

In this connection, rather than simply emphasizing the innovation of deep-tech technology, I have always felt that important innovations are also to be achieved through ideas that utilize such technology in ways that create economic value.

The key point about innovation is that, by quickly reacting to people’s tastes and preferences, it generates considerable profits. Something that does not create wealth is not truly an innovation.

I’d like to emphasize once again how important young entrepreneurs are these days because they are the trendsetters, shaping people’s tastes and preferences.

In places like the Silicon Valley in the United States, innovative advanced technologies emerge one after another in rapid succession. You might feel as if you cannot compete due to lack of capacity—but there is no need for worry. What matters is finding ways to create wealth—ultimately, it is crucial to adopt technologies from anywhere in the world and utilize them well. I believe such an ability is the more valuable type of innovation. I heard today that this center, U-Enter, was jointly established by Korea’s KOICA and the Uzbek government. I believe it has been, and is proving to be, a huge help in launching innovative projects.

It has been a while since I was in Paris last year, but on that occasion, I saw an organization like this that supports youth startups, where many young people were working on various projects inside a large hall or small rooms. It has now become vital for modern nations to provide assistance, regardless of format, to young people who start their own businesses.

Central Asia, with such countries as Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, is now emerging as a region of great importance both geo-politically and geo-economically. Accordingly, Korea is also striving to strengthen its strategic partnerships with Uzbekistan and other countries in this region.

I believe that economic as well as scientific and technological cooperation is crucial in such strategic partnerships, but what is most important are people-to-people exchanges, especially among young, talented individuals. Working together to nurture such individuals makes this strategic partnership sustainable, so I place great emphasis on it.

We should not just support the youth of our own countries. Through international solidarity, countries joining forces to support and help young people—regardless of where they are from, where they start a business, where they do business or what their nationality is—is important for world peace and prosperity.

I hope that many young Uzbeks will come to Korea. You can study or start a business in Korea—our government will actively provide support. Moreover, if young Koreans want to work in Uzbekistan, our government will strive to provide assistance. You are key in the future relationship between Korea and Uzbekistan. We will be rooting for you in your efforts to chase your dreams and take on new challenges.

Thank you.