Atal

• The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is the best place in the world to start a new business, according to the latest annual Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) survey.
• The UAE has made particularly steady progress, progressing from fifth on the list in 2019 to the lead ranking.
• Saudi Arabia has risen from 17th to third over the same period, while India is up from sixth to second, having shaken off a pandemic dip in between.

How the survey works

• GEM captures this each year through a national expert survey that goes out to a range of entrepreneurship ecosystem stakeholders, including business leaders, government officials and academics.
• This year, 49 countries participated in the survey including most countries in the G20 (with exceptions like Australia that didn’t participate in the most recent survey).

The shift to the east

• In the UAE, for instance, there have been initiatives such as Projects of the 50, which includes priority visas for entrepreneurs and top students, particularly in areas like artificial intelligence, digital currencies and coding.
• The Ghadan 21 business accelerator programme has also been spending AED50 billion (£11 billion) in Abu Dhabi since 2019.

• This has seen the national enterprise development agency, Monsha’at, doing things like promoting university startups and fast-growing ventures.
• To attract foreign talent, the Saudi government also approved a new residency scheme in 2019 and an instant labour visa in 2023.

East v west

• In 2019, four out of the top ten countries were Switzerland, the Netherlands, Norway and the US.
• When you look at countries like Switzerland, France, Norway and Germany, over 30% of their entrepreneurs are in business services.
• So both in the global east and also in low-income countries, there needs to be more impetus and support for encouraging business services.

• It’s also worth pointing out that entrepreneurship education needs more attention in most countries.
• In 31 out of 49 economies, it was rated as the weakest of the conditions assessed in the survey.

• Aileen is executive director of Global Entrepreneurship Monitor.
• All views expressed in this article are Aileen’s own.

• NORFOLK, Va., Jan. 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- PRA Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: PRAA), a global leader in acquiring and collecting nonperforming loans, today announced the appointment of Keith Warren as chief risk and compliance officer (CRCO) , effective Jan. 29.
• Warren will report directly to Atal and serve as a member of the Senior Leadership Team.
• "I am excited to join PRA Group and contribute to its important work strengthening the global economy," said Warren.
• Warren, who will oversee enterprise-wide risk, compliance and risk governance at PRA Group, has more than 30 years of compliance, legal and operational risk leadership experience across multiple consumer banking and business products and control functions.

• NORFOLK, Va., April 17, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- PRA Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: PRAA) (the "Company), a global leader in acquiring and collecting nonperforming loans, has announced the appointment of Owen James as global investments officer, effective April 7.
• PRA Group also announced today that Chris Graves, executive vice president and global investments and analytics officer, is retiring for personal health reasons, effective May 12, 2023.
• James has been with PRA Group for more than a decade, most recently as managing director of acquisitions.
• James joined PRA Group as part of the Company's first entry into Europe through the acquisition of Mackenzie Hall Holdings in 2012.