Prime Minister, members of the Commission on Sustainable Development & others present,

[Isaac] We wrote this speech on Entrepreneurship Day on the fifth of September, together with our newly organised Agenda 2030 working group. As an entrepreneur myself and as a young citizen, I want to speak precisely about the importance of entrepreneurship for a sustainable future. We think that a sustainable public economy is based on enterprises that employ people, provide services and goods and create self-sufficiency in Finland and the European Union. In addition, businesses have a responsibility to act in a socially and ecologically sustainable way and to create well-being for their employees and the society around them, even changing it for the better.

[Huugo] We young people are concerned about how to ensure this in the future. As the number of young people declines, we hope that entrepreneurship in Finland will be seen as a viable option from a young age, for example alongside studies. Our current system does not support risk-taking among young people, as exemplified by public support instruments that do not encourage us as students to take risks and try entrepreneurship as an alternative means of earning a living. We are also concerned that, for example, as a student enrolled at university, you do not receive start-up money, which could be an essential tool for putting an entrepreneurial idea into practice from a practical point of view.

[Isaac] Instead of directing funding to environmentally damaging businesses such as fur farming and subsidies for flying, we could direct funding to new innovations by young people, and to small businesses that drive social and environmental change. Finland, the European Union and our global society need businesses of all sizes that support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. The driving forces of the future are in the hands of our generation. The focus now should be on helping to take these ideas from the idea stage to the practical level and ensuring that there are opportunities for more business experiments in the future, even if the first one fails.

[Huugo] The sustainable economy should certainly not be understood only as the success of large companies and the functioning of long multinational production chains. We emphasise the importance of businesses of all sizes; we emphasise that now and in the future the state will invest in the creation and success of all businesses. Our problem in society is not so much the high success rate of existing companies, but rather the low motivation for new companies to start up. We need to cut the bureaucracy associated with entrepreneurship and make it easier to bring new ideas and innovations to market in the future than it is today.

[Isaac] Supporting responsible entrepreneurship reinforces the idea that each of us should have the opportunity to take ownership of our own livelihoods and make a positive contribution to society. Entrepreneurship must be seen as a powerful tool for making a difference in the world and moving towards a future that works.

Thank you.

Cover photo: The Prime Minister’s Office