English
United States Department of State
Spokesperson’s Office
December 31, 2020
Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy and Environment Keith Krach presented three US companies with the 2020 Entrepreneurship Award of Excellence awarded by the Secretary of State (Award for Corporate Excellence or ACE) in a video ad that aired today. The 2020 awards were presented in three categories: innovation, sustainable energy security and women’s economic empowerment.
Abbott was honored in the Innovation category for devising new strategies to deliver preventive health care more widely in underserved rural areas of Rwanda. Abbott has focused in particular on capacity building to help strengthen Rwanda’s health services so that Rwandans have the tools and support they need to manage their health sector for the long term.
AES Panama distinguished itself in the area of sustainable energy security for its work in designing the first natural gas-fired power plant and the first receiving terminal in Central America, to meet growing energy demand through a cleaner and more resilient supply. Since 2018, AES has avoided the emission of more than 100 tonnes of carbon dioxide that would have been produced by traditional fossil fuels.
Coca-Cola Azerbaijan received the Women’s Economic Empowerment Award for its action in support of business training for women entrepreneurs in rural areas, the promotion of women-led businesses in the tourism sector and entrepreneurship among young women. The almost equal gender distribution within Coca-Cola Azerbaijan’s workforce – including in senior management positions – is a testament to the importance the company places on diversity and inclusion. Coca-Cola considers a comparatively higher representation of women in managerial roles as one of the factors behind its consistent good business performance.
The Secretary of State’s 2020 Annual Entrepreneurship Award of Excellence recognizes and honors U.S. businesses that hold high standards as responsible members of their communities. Established in 1999, the award aims to highlight the representation of American values by United States companies in the course of their business activities, in accordance with international best practices such as the Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises of the ‘Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
The United States Department of State is committed to working with businesses to promote responsible business practices around the world and to recognize their actions in the service of improving lives, both in the United States and abroad.
For more information, please follow @EconAtState on Twitter or visit http://www.state.gov/ace.
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