infoDev Global Forum
East London, South Africa, May 28, 2013

It’s a pleasure to welcome you here today – on behalf of the World Bank Group – to infoDev’s fifth Global Forum on Innovation and Technology Entrepreneurship.

Our discussions here this week will take us into some of the most exciting sectors of the economy – including mobile applications, climate technology and agribusiness.

The creativity of sectors like these will have a direct impact on the highest priority areas for the future: turning today’s imaginative assets into tomorrow’s productive capital.

Sparked by the ideas of enterprising entrepreneurs, that process will spur new businesses and respond to the Number One challenge in today’s global economy: the priority of job creation.

The success of new ideas in these sectors will be crucial in renewing job growth worldwide – and in promoting inclusive growth and shared prosperity, which are especially high priorities for countries where inequality is a major social concern.

The World Bank Group is committed to being a creative partner for all those with the energy to innovate – promoting the agenda for innovation, technology and entrepreneurship.

As a “learning lab” and community-builder, infoDev helps enable the startup and growth of innovative, technology-enabled enterprises.

I’d like to begin by thanking our partners, who have helped make this event possible: South Africa’s Department of Science and Technology; the Eastern Cape Province; the government of Sweden; and the government of Finland.

I’d also like to recognize the contribution of Nokia, our content partner for this event’s mobile stream, which is shepherding innovation-related thinking in mobile technologies.

The Global Forum is an opportunity to meet and learn from inspiring people who are building truly groundbreaking businesses in developing countries.

Let me also suggest that, while you’re here, you take some time to see the imaginative projects that are on exhibit – the innovations that have been judged among this forum’s “Top 50” entrepreneurs and start-ups.

There’s an impressive range of innovation on display.

You can readily envision how some of them will change people’s lives – and perhaps change the world.

Many of the exhibits offer breathtaking possibilities.

For example, among the Top 50:

Khaya Power is a South African start-up that has built a unique mobile battery station, charged either by solar power or off the grid. The station is rented to customers to provide power to households or small businesses – such as wi-fi hotspots or cellphone charging systems.

Another Top 50 example is SliceBiz from Ghana, which is launching a “crowdfunding” platform – aiming to connect start-up companies that are looking for funding, with business-savvy professionals seeking to invest in promising young companies.

So I hope you’ll join me in saluting the creativity of the entrepreneurs who have come here from all around the world.

In my remarks today, I’d like to sharpen our thinking by raising three questions that may trigger some discussion among us for the rest of the week:

First: Let’s consider the role that innovators and entrepreneurs play in shaping the economy – in helping the economy take creative leaps forward.

Second: We often hear about the importance of far-sighted public policy in fostering healthy innovation ecosystems. I’d like us to explore what value such active public policies can contribute to nurturing those ecosystems.

And third: Amid the frequent lamentations about the lack of leadership in driving innovation: Let’s think about the additional practical steps that we can take to support sustainable, innovative enterprises.

Such questions are essential in the debate over innovation and growth.

So: First: Let’s consider the question of the role of innovators in reshaping our economy.

As entrepreneurs: If you sometimes feel as if you’re laboring in loneliness – well, you’re not alone in that feeling.

Economic history is filled with examples of leading-edge inventors who struggled in solitude.

Consider a couple of entrepreneurs who started with very little – yet who achieved remarkable success with path-breaking ideas:

Steve Jobs founded Apple and triggered a personal computer revolution – but he was practically fired from his company in 1985. He went on to push Pixar, the innovative animation studio, to new heights – and he returned to Apple and masterminded its triumph with world-beating technologies.

South African-born innovator and serial entrepreneur Elon Musk became well-known for his groundbreaking online payment system, PayPal. But he is still carving out his place in industrial history with his electric car and with clean-energy applications.

Successful innovators have always been society’s visionaries – but, realistically, failure rates among them are extremely high. Similarly: Small organizations are more likely to be agile enough to grasp a new idea. But young firms are not always well-positioned to bring those new ideas to scale. Larger firms also play an important role, with their access to capital and production know-how.

Innovation is, ultimately, about setting ideas into motion – moving ideas from experimentation, via incubation, adaptation, and acceleration, toward commercial application.

And that process depends on having a vibrant spirit of innovation in both startups and large-scale firms.

Individuals will always inspire innovation. Their role is certainly indispensable. But it also takes far-sighted institutions and a diverse ecosystem to allow ideas to flourish.

That brings me to my second point: What else is required for the creation of a healthy innovation ecosystem?

It’s important to emphasize that policymakers cannot reach for any single, off-the-shelf solution to the problem of designing a creative ecosystem. Instead, they must consider a variety of policy levers – adapted to each individual situation.

Realistically: Getting the policy formula right is more difficult in practice than it looks in theory. There is an element of spontaneity – even luck – in the evolution of a successful ecosystem.

The world’s hubs of innovation, after all, are the places where ideas collide. They’re the places where innovators share ideas, tinker with each other’s designs, and learn from each other’s mistakes.

Policymakers like to think that wise policies can shape such a process – and getting policies right is indeed an important part of creating the conditions for entrepreneurship. But the driving force of creativity is really innovators themselves.

In tight-knit clusters of competing industries, innovators can follow the experimental ethos of the management guru Tom Peters, who tells them: “Test fast, fail fast, adapt fast.”

Trial-and-error is inevitably part of the pattern – and that requires tolerating plenty of failures. That process requires not just the availability of capital, but a certain audacity of capital . . . so it will be ready to fund – not just the ideas that are the most immediately profitable – but also the ideas with long-range potential.

And, for the long-term sustainability of innovation ecosystems: Government, I would argue, has a responsibility to offer support via effective policy and funding.

That’s what we’re aiming to encourage here through the infoDev “Top 50” competition, which rewards some of the most promising start-ups from the developing world.

To promote the success of innovation ecosystems, pragmatic policy must create the framework for entrepreneurship.

Getting tax policy right is essential. So is setting a realistic regulatory framework. The enforcement of intellectual property rights, the clarity of patent law, and the adoption of appropriate incentives must all be in place.

Sound public policies alone are no guarantee of an ecosystem’s success. But getting the institutional framework right is one of the crucial components in building confidence that new ideas are welcome.

The true drivers of the process, as always, are innovators themselves. The so-called “Triple Helix” of university-industry-government cooperation is increasingly important in fostering creativity. University funding, R&D programs and technology-transfer centers can promote basic research and its practical application.

Incubators can spur the commercialization of ideas, supported by venture capital.

Enterprising processes and structures like these are essential, too.

That brings me to my third point: whether sufficient practical steps are already being taken to catalyze innovation and sustainable growth.

It’s encouraging to see that there’s an increasing recognition of the importance of thriving innovation ecosystems. In the area of the World Bank that I lead – Financial Sector and Private Sector development – infoDev is our catalyst for creators.

infoDev directly supports entrepreneurs and small businesses, helping unleash the creativity of innovative firms. infoDev brings a “practitioner’s knowledge” to the table. It is connected to a grassroots network of about 240 incubators in more than 75 countries.

It offers a global network; South-to-South learning; specialized incubation efforts like the Climate Innovation Centers and mLabs; and mechanisms to provide innovative financing for entrepreneurs, including crowdfunding and specially designed venture-capital funds that blend public and private money.

infoDev has been a supportive partner in inspiring innovators and supporting innovation. For instance, we expect that dozens of new mobile applications will emerge from infoDev’s five new regional mobile applications labs – in Armenia, Kenya, Pakistan, South Africa and Vietnam.

infoDev’s projects always ensure that all segments of society enjoy the benefits of enhanced innovation.

This reflects the World Bank’s strategy of “Shared Prosperity,” reaching the poor and the most vulnerable of every country.

It also reflects the South African government’s admirable leadership in this area. For example, infoDev’s Climate Technology Program is working with the Gauteng provincial government to launch a Climate Innovation Center – to support South African innovation in clean technology sectors and to create “green jobs.” All aspects of this center’s activities are focused on inclusive green growth.

A new report on the center’s inclusive approach is being released here at the Global Forum, based on extensive stakeholder outreach to South African townships.

Amplifying infoDev’s success: The Bank is now creating additional initiatives to promote stronger innovation ecosystems.

Let me illustrate how we’re doing so. The World Bank has long worked with public-sector clients, counseling them on pragmatic policy approaches. And the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank Group has worked with individual firms, to help focus private-sector investment.

In-between the policy level and the individual firm level, however, there had long been a gap: We had not been focusing at the industry level.

That pattern has now changed. We’re addressing the potential of the middle level, through the work of our practice that helps build “Competitive Industries.” We’re helping clients identify their areas of comparative advantage in specific industries – and we’re lending crucial support to sustainable innovation, in the areas that have the greatest likelihood of success.

Together with the capabilities that infoDev has nurtured, the World Bank Group and its partners will be able to deliver a “1 plus 1 equals 5” solution.

Through our efforts to support competitiveness, innovation, technology and entrepreneurship, we’re advancing the policy dialogue and helping drive the innovation agenda.

That’s an indispensable element in promoting the inclusive growth and “Shared Prosperity” that we all seek – and the job creation that the world so desperately needs.

In my mind, this is at the core of this Global Forum: creating new jobs, and providing dramatic new opportunities.

Thank you all for joining us here at this fifth infoDev Global Forum. I’m looking forward to hearing your ideas, about spurring creativity and about promoting innovation ecosystems that can help create prosperity for all.

Thank you very much.