White House announces efforts to boost business startups

The Obama administration marked the opening Wednesday of it’s Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Silicon Valley by announcing a trio of new or expanded programs to boost business startups in America.

The announcements were part of the White House’s focus this week on President Obama’s record of fostering innovation that has helped fuel economic growth during his presidency.

Mr. Obama will deliver a speech at the summit Friday and participate in a panel discussion with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

The announcements include:

• Expanding the Small Business Administration’s Startup in a Day initiative to nearly 100 U.S. cities and communities. The program streamlines licensing, permitting and other requirements needed to start a business, with the goal of completing the process within 24 hours.

• Three federal agencies will adopt new expansions of the National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps entrepreneurship training program. More than 800 teams have completed the curriculum, from 192 universities in 44 states, resulting in the creation of over 320 companies, according to the White House.

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• Over 30 companies are joining a new, industry-led Tech Inclusion Pledge, with which technology companies commit to creating a more diverse workplace.

The Global Entrepreneurship Summit was launched by the Obama administration to share the American entrepreneurial spirit with other countries, helping build more economically prosperous, secure, and globally connected communities around the world, said officials.

The effort originally targeted Muslim countries but widespread interest in the program led to participation from countries from around the world, said officials.

The summit this year at Stanford University is the seventh installment in a series previously hosted by the United States and the governments of Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Morocco and Kenya.