PETALING JAYA: US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived here yesterday for a two-day visit representing President Barack Obama for the fourth Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) 2013 beginning today.
Kerry, who flew in from Bandar Seri Begawan after attending the East Asia Summit (EAS), would meet Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak prior to the opening of GES today.
Najib will open the summit, which brings together entrepreneurs from the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia and the US and provide an important platform to network, exchange experiences, knowledge and form business alliances.
Kerry would deliver a special address tomorrow at the two-day GES 2013, themed, ‘Empowering and Connecting Entrepreneurs’ which is expected to be attended by 3,900 delegates from over 100 countries. The US Senator was accompanied by US Trade Representative Michael Frohman, Assistant Secretary of State Danny Russel and Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker.
Obama, who was scheduled to address the summit, cancelled his trip to Malaysia in order to tackle his government’s partial shutdown crisis.
On hand to meet Kerry at the Royal Malaysian Air Force base at Subang was Deputy Foreign Minister Datuk Hamzah Zainuddin.
GES has united policy makers, regulators, entrepreneurs, small-and-medium enterprises (SME), stakeholders, investors, corporate leaders, non-government organisations and incubators in discussing support and development of the SME eco-system. — Bernama