On heels of Tuesday’s StartupIowa launch and our post highlighting Steve Kiene’s TEDxLincoln talk on the ingredients of a software ecosystem, this recently released video from LeWeb, “Panel: How European governments support startup ecosystems,” caught my attention. Moderated by Sherry Coutu, an accomplished entrepreneur and angel investor, the panel discussed ways in which governments can stimulate entrepreneurship.
The first panelist, Nicolas Princen, advisor for new media and information technology at the office of France President Nicolas Sarkozy, presented what he called France’s “very aggressive tax system” that includes tax cuts for startup companies and investments made in research and development. He also spoke about the country’s focus on infrastructure, the university system and the government’s overall approach.
“We now see government as part of the ecosystem,” Princen said, “not above the ecosystem looking down … I think what governments can do is facilitate, catalyze, enable innovation and try to contribute positively to the ecosystem that can work without it but can work faster and better with it.”
The second panelist, Eric Van der Kleij, CEO of the Tech City Investment Organization and an entrepreneur-in-residence with the United Kingdom Government, spoke about the United Kingdom’s open government data project, the Tech City initiative and four major policy changes meant to “not get in the way” but rather stimulate entrepreneurship.
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What followed was a discussion on the panelists’ initial points. Check out the 23-minute video below to hear an interesting dialogue on a topic that also has the attention of individuals in the Silicon Prairie.
