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2018 CITYPRENEURS

POLICY INTERFACE AT 2018 CITYPRENEURS SEOUL

2018 POLICY INTERFACE PANEL 1:

SUCCESSES & CHALLENGES OF YOUTH ENTREPRENEURSHIP FOR THE SDGs IN SEOUL AND BEYOND

2018 HIGH-LEVEL STAKEHOLDERS MEETING

TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION

& INCLUSION

2018 POLICY INTERFACE PANEL 2:

YOUTH INNOVATION FOR SDGs IN THE FOURTH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

SUCCESSES & CHALLENGES OF YOUTH ENTREPRENEURSHIP FOR THE SDGs IN SEOUL AND BEYOND

2018 POLICY INTERFACE PANEL 1

2018 Panel 1

PANELISTS

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SAVINDA RANATHHUNGA

PANEL 1 MODERATOR

Regional Youth Project Coordinator,

UNDP Asia-Pacific

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이정우 / JUNGWOO LEE

Managing Director,

Seoul Digital Foundation

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최예진 / YEJIN CHOI

CEO, DOBRAIN INC.

2017 Citypreneurs Grand Prize Winner

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ZAHIN HUSSAIN

Programs Manager,

Hanyang Uni. Social Innovation Center

SUMMARY

01 [Challenges Faced by Youth-led Startups]

From the perspective of young entrepreneurs, main challenges include a lack of funding and facilities, difficulty in sustaining the motivation within the team, and a lack of networking opportunities, especially for young female entrepreneurs. To address such impediments, along with appropriate support from the government, young people need to be aware of the different market needs and regulations on startups and be prepared(be ready) to analyze and understand essential trends in social innovation. Citypreneurs can be a great platform for youth-led startups to exchange opinions as well as acknowledge the importance of social impact

03 [The Mindset Of Starting and Running Startups]

It is necessary to point out that the essence of a startup is on solving social problems with entrepreneurship rather than expecting financial success. Thus, young people need the entrepreneurial mindset of not giving up and consistently looking for opportunities that would enable them to realize their ideas. Going beyond ideation, it is also crucial to validate feasibility and resilience of the startup for the purpose of trust-building when it comes to receiving investment from the government or private sector partners.

05 [The Role of the Government in Strengthening the Ecosystem for Youth-led Startups]

Policymakers need to pay more attention to youth-led startups in order to minimize policy gaps and strengthen connectivity between different stakeholders. For example, there is a mismatch between reality and policies in government-led key performance indicators and lack of expertise in shaping programs related to fostering startups. Certain regulations on investment also impede the government from providing swift support to entrepreneurs. Therefore, there needs to be more understanding and cooperation between stakeholders to resolve such issues. Trust can be built through consistent communication between young people and the government.

02 [Sharing Good Practices Of Public-Private Partnership In Tackling Urban Issues in Seoul]

Case 1 – Seoul Metropolitan City partnering with KT Corporation on designing optimal night bus routes by using big data: In order to establish night bus routes, KT collected data on mobile phone call history and taxi rides across the city to visualize the moving pattern of citizens on a map. Case 2 – Waste management solution for Bukchon village by Ecube Labs: The Seoul City was able to optimize the operations of waste management by engaging a startup that installed sensors on every trash bin in the tourist area.

04 [The Role of Educational Institutions in Fostering Youth Entrepreneurship]

University should encourage youth to realize what they are passionate about and what impact they want to make by promoting awareness on social issues. Prior to incubating startups, educational institutions should play a role of “sandbox” where young people could engage in creative thinking without having to worry about failures. Connecting them with impact-oriented entrepreneurs at both local and overseas levels through programs such as networking events and boot camps, would empower youth to come up with innovative solutions to challenges hindering sustainable development.

06 [The Importance of International Cooperation between Cities in Fostering Startups]

With growing interconnectedness of the world, the government needs to work on strengthening international ties between cities, as well as startup ecosystems, in order to encourage Korean youth entrepreneurs to go beyond borders and strive to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals. In doing so, thorough research and analysis of good practices from both developed and developing countries would be essential for more diversity and inclusivity. City of Shenzhen in China can be a good lesson on how public-private-academia cooperation towards accelerating the startup ecosystem is being implemented.

YOUTH INNOVATION FOR SDGs IN THE FOURTH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

2018 POLICY INTERFACE PANEL 2

2018 Panel 2

PANELISTS

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LI ZHOU

PANEL 2 MODERATOR

Associate Sustainable Development Officer, UNESCAP

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ANURAG MALOO

Regional manager for South and Central Asia, Techstars

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SOPHIE SOOWON EOM

Founder, Adriel AI / Solidware

UN High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation Committee Member

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JILL TANG

Co-Founder, Ladies Who Tech

SUMMARY

01 [Opportunities of Frontier Technologies for Start-ups]

Frontier technologies associated with the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) will transform many parts of our economy and society. This will offer opportunities for start-ups, particularly those that leverage new technologies to create new markets or disrupt dominant providers in existing markets through increased efficiency and product differentiation. The scale of transformation associated with 4IR will generate many opportunities, and start-ups will drive a lot of this transformation if it is in an environment where dominant players are not shielded from competition.

03 [Ethical and Human-Centered Development of 4th Industrial Revolution]

Citypreneurs focuses on impact, including economic, social, and environmental impact. Inherent in this approach is to integrate externalities into the assessment of business models. Therefore, it is important to consider the ethics surrounding the way new technologies are used, and whether it is environmentally and socially sustainable; the assessment should also include both the outcomes (the ends) as well as the process (the means).

A humancentered approach is not only important from the perspective of positive impact; it is also crucial in the era of increased human-computer interaction that still relies on humans to make choices in the marketplace. A human-centered approach is therefore also important to access new markets and generate revenue.

05 [Open and Competitive Markets]

To successfully take advantage of 4IR, start-ups and innovators must have access to competitive markets. Existing corporations and the government will have a role to play in ensuring the market is open and competitive. Zero-sum thinking can inhibit the generation and diffusion of innovation and lead innovators to relocate to markets that are more open, therefore weakening the innovation system overall. The interlinked nature of 4IR technologies further benefits from positive sum thinking that promotes collaboration.

02 [Considerations of Risks Associated with Frontier Technologies]

As with all economic transformations, there are risks associated with frontier technologies. One area of concern that has already showed up in statistics is the impact of automation technologies on employment, particularly youth employment. Young people in the Republic of Korea have experienced a trend of in declining employment rates, not just in manufacturing, but also in professional services and office clerical work. As the country leads the world in robots per capita, the trend of AI displacing non-manufacturing employment may be an early data point signaling potential labour market disruptions. Supporting youth entrepreneurship is therefore an important opportunity for young people as traditional avenues of employment narrows.

04 [Building an Inclusive Fourth Industrial Revolution]

The transformative potential of 4IR will affect everyone in society in profound ways, making it important that everyone be included in this revolution. Inclusion is important both in the composition of its workforce and in their approach to customers. If opportunities arising from 4IR continue to be dominated by one segment of the population while the dislocation effects are borne by others, the social sustainability of 4IR will be challenged. Inclusion in hiring and investments will be a crucial factor in expanding opportunity and mitigating against increasing inequality. Additionally, the engagement of diverse groups in the development and implementation of new technologies will be important to spread the benefits of 4IR products. This is particularly important in the context of rapid population ageing, in which a large portion of the population may not be digital natives. An inclusive approach here will further support the expansion of new markets for 4IR start-ups.