Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced initiatives to create ties between U.S. companies and entrepreneurs in Muslim-majority countries, steps she linked today to social gains and improved relations with their people.

Clinton described mentoring backed by New York-based Ernst & Young LLP and Intel Corp. of Santa Clara, California, a global entrepreneurship program, a Silicon Valley effort to fund start- up companies, and a collaboration with Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Co. to get businesses involved in these State Department programs.

“Relationships between nations are sustained by the connections between their peoples,” Clinton told a gathering of the entrepreneurs in Washington. “You have the power not only to drive economic growth, but promote shared prosperity, call for open and accountable governance, help expand access to services like health care and education.”

Clinton announced the new programs at a two-day conference meant to jumpstart the “new beginning” between the U.S. and Muslim nations that President Barack Obama called for in a speech last year in Egypt. The conference drew more than 250 participants from over 50 countries, including Algeria, Kazakhstan, Bangladesh and Cameroon, the administration said.

“This summit reflects the new approach to foreign policy that President Obama described last year at Cairo University,” Clinton said. “One that we have been putting into practice through partnerships based on shared values, mutual respect and mutual responsibility.”

The use of business ties and assistance reflects an administration effort to make various kinds of development assistance a pillar of U.S. foreign policy, alongside military involvement and diplomacy.

Poverty, Democracy

In a January speech, Clinton said that a safer, more prosperous, democratic and equitable world remains out of reach as long as one-third of the world’s people live in poverty. Today, she announced four new programs designed to help aspiring small business owners in the Muslim world prosper.

The Global Entrepreneurship Program will provide “concrete support” to entrepreneurs in Muslim-majority countries, eventually expanding worldwide. The program will sponsor business plan competitions, help with access to credit and facilitate exchanges between U.S. business schools and those in other countries.

The program will be in a dozen countries in the next two years, Clinton said.

In a second initiative, the State Department has partnered with Global Technology and Innovation Partners and the Innovators Fund, Silicon Valley groups started by U.S. venture capital investors and business leaders.

Capital, Expertise

They will support innovation and entrepreneurship in predominantly Muslim countries with seed funding, venture capital and expertise. The program will begin in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Malaysia and expand from there, Clinton said.

A third program called e-Mentor Corps would expand mentoring opportunities and draw on expertise at Intel, Ernst & Young and the Young Presidents’ Organization in Irving, Texas.

The final project is intended to involve U.S. companies, universities, and foundations in the administration’s outreach efforts.

The State Department will work with Partners for a New Beginning, a non-profit led by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright that will spearhead the effort to get private business involved in State Department programs.

Coca-Cola CEO

Partners for a New Beginning, co-chaired by Coca-Cola Chief Executive Officer Muhtar Kent, will reach out to U.S. companies, universities, laboratories, research centers, non-profit organizations, philanthropists and others. They will be asked to invest in and guide entrepreneurs in Muslim-majority countries and contribute equipment or technology.

“Global corporations have an important role to play in small business development and in helping to create sustainable communities where they operate,” Kent said in a statement read by Coca-Cola executive Barclay Resler.

Coca-Cola has been present in countries such as Malaysia since 1936 and in Pakistan since 1953, according to Kent.

Thanks Bloomberg.