US president Barack Obama will lay a key plank of his strategy to mend ties with the Islamic world next week when he hosts a summit to boost economic development in Muslim nations.

In a step the White House hopes will help shift relations beyond decades of talk about terrorism and conflict, a senior official said Mr Obama will bring entrepreneurs from 50 countries to Washington on Monday and Tuesday to spur economic ties.

The event — entitled “A New Beginning: The Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship” — will take place at the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center in Washington, D.C. (pictured).

The president pledged to host the summit in a landmark speech in Cairo last June, when he also called for a “new beginning” to relations between the United States and the Islamic world. “One of the principal goals of that vision was to broaden our relationship, which has been dominated by a few different issues, a small set of issues, for at least the last decade, and going back further than that,” the official told AFP.

“We don’t see this as a replacement for our work on things like Middle East peace or work on counter-terrorism, our work on Iran. We see this as part of establishing a more multifaceted set of relationships. It is yet another pillar.”

Around 250 entrepreneurs will attended the summit from over 50 countries across the Muslim world. Delegates were selected from nominations by US Embassies and from online applicants. Selections were made based on the innovativeness of nominees’ ideas, their ability to promote entrepreneurship and their commitment to community service as well as on gender and geographic and urban/rural diversity.

Mr Obama is expected to discuss ways of improving access to capital, funding for technology innovation and exchange programmes, as the United States tries to better its image in the eyes of the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims.

Sources:

“Obama to host Muslim leaders” The Straits Times April 22, 2010

“Three Kuwaiti participants in US Presidential Summit” Kuwait Times April 22, 2010

“Six Indians to attend Presidential Summit in U.S.” The Hindu April 21, 2010