I am very pleased to recognize the Second Biennial HCT-MIT Global Entrepreneurship Conference, and I recall with great pleasure having the privilege and opportunity to address the first conference two years ago. I wish to extend my gratitude to His Excellency Sheikh Nahayan for his continuous leadership in actively supporting the relationship between HCT and MIT.  We appreciate his generous gesture and the opportunity, once again, to collaborate with HCT.

Your very presence here today bears testimony to the fact that the world has indeed become a small village.  Distances -- be they geographical, cultural, social, or economic -- no longer hold people in their own worlds.  We are living today in a truly global society and are learning to engage, live and work together, in harmony for a better standard of living for ourselves and future generations.  There is no higher calling to a university than to place knowledge in the service of human development and the solution of problems faced by national communities and our global society.

For the MIT Entrepreneurship Center it is a very strategic step to engage with leaders and future leaders in the Middle East, and to be able to share our knowledge, technology, and resources. We also benefit significantly from the wonderful and diverse opportunities that are available here in this very important part of the world.

I believe our engagement with HCT, the UAE, and the Region to develop capacity and capability in entrepreneurship is a crucial step in creating a vibrant, dynamic, and globally competitive economy to help ensure the UAE’s leadership in the decades ahead.

Entrepreneurship is the key to creating the new enterprises which are central to the mission of job creation and global competitiveness. This conference is a visible sign of a growing array of initiatives which we are undertaking together with our colleagues at the Higher Colleges of Technology to support His Excellency Sheikh Nahayan’s long term vision. MIT is pleased to share its experience in introducing entrepreneurship as one of many tools in a broad strategy for national development -- one that supports both educational and social development.

My colleagues here at MIT, especially Ken Morse, Managing Director of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center, join me in wholeheartedly wishing you every success with this conference, and in the years ahead.

Sincerely yours,

Dr. Phillip L. Clay
Chancellor