Tuesday, September 29 2020 | 45 minutes | 09:00 GMT / 11:00 CET Fostering entrepreneurship, innovation and promoting impact investment have been at the core of UNIDO’s work in developing countries and economies in transition for many years. This is more important today than ever before, as we all work together worldwide towards achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the challenges being presented by the 4th Industrial Digital Revolution and the recent outbreak of COVID 19. This is why the role of entrepreneurs and innovators becomes key as highlighted in the Sustainable Development Goals, and especially in Goal 9, which seeks to “build resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.” The fast technological advancements facing our world today is unleashing exciting opportunities and at the same time creating challenges for us as experts and decision-makers. All in the backdrop of the COVID 19; is a further challenge on MSMEs sustaining their current operations, let alone developing growth plans. The panel will try to answer three main questions

• Against the backdrop of the COVID 19, what sort of support will be needed to sustain start-ups and the growth of SMEs?
• How can entrepreneurs and innovation contribute and be at the forefront of digitalization and the 4th Industrial Revolution?
• What will be the requirements?