entrepreneurship initiatives versus public policy

For a small country, Jordan is making a big push for entrepreneurship. On Wednesday last week I visited the El-Hassan Science City (http://www.elhassansciencecity.com/), home of the Princess Sumaya University of Technology, The Royal Scientific Society (an applied research institution), and the Higher Council for Science and Technology (policy and strategy). Co-located with Science City is the Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship (QRCE). Together, these institutions are working hard on very lean budgets to implement a vision of an integrated science park with students, incubated budding entrepreneurs and more mature businesses working alongside one another. And they are promoting a grander vision of a Jordan built on a strong knowledge based economy.

The QRCE has pioneered several initiatives, most notable of which is a national business plan competition sponsored by Google. They've also partnered with the Cisco Entrepreneurship Institute for business training and created a Made in Jordan competition whose aim is to turn innovative research into high growth companies. Additionally, business plan winners and runners-up, as well as some other companies, are supported at Science City's Incubator.

Courtesy of my friend Bob, who works as a consultant for Science City, I had the opportunity to tour the campus, meet with some companies and meet with the Deputy Director of the QRCE, Mohamad Khawaja. Here's a picture (and article) of Bob and Mohamad meeting with Her Majesty Queen Rania a few hours before I visited: http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=17456.

I think the effort is quite admirable, and I believe it will pay off. It already is. Mohamad, the QRCE's Deputy Director, is a young pragmatic yet passionate guy who can make things happen. The entrepreneurs at the incubator are young, hard-working and fired up about their prospects and the support and recognition they are receiving. I hear more talk of entrepreneurship than a few years ago. And while still rare, I see a venture fund popping up here, one there, focusing on high growth local entrepreneurs.

But there's still a long way to go for the government in terms of policy. Regulations often go counter to the goal of the business promoting initiatives. Take for example import tariffs. They're great, right? They generate revenue for the government while protecting or encouraging local business. But this is where Dani Rodrik's voice rings in my ear, "coordination failure." If the inputs that business require don't exist in country (coordination failure) and it's too costly to produce them in country, then they must be acquired from abroad. Now the import tariffs don't seem as appealing, since they might serve to depress business growth that can fuel the economy and generate many multiples more in tax revenue than the import tariffs currently generate. There are many other examples. For one, it is very costly and cumbersome to open a business in Jordan. Permit and license fees are very high as are working capital requirements.

Thus, we have exciting and ambitious government initiatives to foster entrepreneurship and build a knowledge-based economy coming at us from one direction, and mismatched government regulation that hinders entreprenuership coming at us from the other direction. Fortunately, in this monarchy government, strong potential exists for getting things done. If you are able to find and convince the right person things can start moving. Bob spends some of his time working on this. I'd like to as well....