Opnunarræða Gylfa Magnússonar viðskiptaráðherra á Seed Forum Iceland þann 3. apríl 2009

Gylfi Magnússon ávarp á Seed Forum Iceland 03.04.2009

Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to begin by thanking you for inviting me to open this conference today. Given the current climate in Iceland, the majority of my week is spent managing various issues related to financial institutions, so I must admit it comes as a breath of fresh air to be asked to speak here today.

In fact I am delighted to be asked to speak to a group of entrepreneurs and equity investors. It is a pleasure to see the diversity of companies represented here at the Seed forum. It is commendable to see your fresh approaches to established sectors such as design, mobile messaging, gaming, music and media.

Although it is not directly part of my ministry´s portfolio, the Government has put a number of initiatives in place that support innovation and entrepreneurship. One of them „starfsorka“ or roughly translated „work power“ allows start up companies to hire an unemployed person and claim the unemployment insurance to supplement the salary of the newly hired person. This of course presents a win-win situation as an unemployed person gets a job and a start up company lowers its pay-roll costs while the Government is no more out of pocket than if it were paying the said workers unemployment insurance.

With or without government back-up it is never easy to be an entrepreneur. In many ways it is now harder than ever. We live in an environment where bank lending has stopped, interest rates remain high and currency controls may discourage international investors from investing in Icelandic start -ups.

On the other hand now may be a great time to be an Icelandic entrepreneur. There is plenty of inexpensive office space. I know there is, to us the words of an economist, an abundance of high quality human capital willing to participate in building something new and better for the Icelandic economy. And I think that you may find it easier to find investors than say, a year ago. One gets the sense that investors around the world that are disillusioned by complicated financial structures are returning to investing directly in companies. I would not be surprised if a start up company finds it easier to access investors now after the financial crisis than before.

I think that the sentiment of the Iceland is now also very much in favour of its entrepreneurs. It is in companies like yours that we see hope for the future. We all hope that today’s start ups will be the ones listed on the Icelandic stock exchange of the tomorrow or maybe the day after. We hope that your companies will be creating jobs, export earnings and positive GDP growth very soon.

We have of course all seen countries such as Finland emerge stronger after a deep recession than before. We know that innovation and entrepreneurship play a major role in rebuilding economies. Here in Iceland we are all secretly hoping for our own Nokia story. Because we know „necessity is the mother of all invention“ or to translate directly from the Icelandic „need teaches a naked woman to spin“

Iceland is an environment that fosters creativity and innovation. With a well educated and highly internationalised work force we can go very far. If this past year has taught us anything it is that we need to channel our innovation and creativity in the right direction. Some people thought finance was a good place to get creative – we now know technology, art and design are more preferable outlets for creativity.

As a final note I would like to commend the Seed forum of Iceland for how it has been supporting the country´s entrepreneurs and linking them to investors since 2005. I am also aware that the forum has a number of good sponsors and to them I say thank you for providing financial and moral support to these great entrepreneurs that we have here today.

I hope you enjoy your day and I wish you all every success.