The title of the two-day event that started Monday in Washington is somewhat innocuous: the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship. But this isn’t a series of how-to workshops or pitch sessions for a general audience. It has a much more specific mission in mind.

The summit is geared for Muslim entrepreneurs and is the outgrowth of a promise President Obama made last June when he declared that he wanted to engage the Muslim world to help build economic ties with the United States. The summit is seen as a key step in the administration's effort to move relations with Islamic countries beyond the focus on terrorism and security.

"All of us must recognize that education and innovation will be the currency of the 21st century," Obama said in his speech in Cairo, "and in too many Muslim communities there remains underinvestment in these areas."

He promised to host an entrepreneurship summit to "identify how we can deepen ties between business leaders, foundations, and social entrepreneurs in the United States and Muslim communities around the world."

At the summit, some 275 entrepreneurs and others from 50 countries will gather at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center to discuss a range of issues and concerns, including financing and mentoring as well as helping youth and women seeking to start their own businesses.

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke opened the session Monday, and administration heavyweights including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Education Secretary Arne Duncan will speak.

Locke opened the gathering by challenging the entrepreneurs to take "the tremendous success that all of you have had individually and expand it throughout the Islamic world."

"There are over a billion people living in Muslim-majority countries today, and they represent a vast reserve of underutilized potential in the global economy, both in terms of their demands for goods and services as well as their ability to create technological and social innovations that will drive economic growth and social development," Locke said.

A sprinkling of high-level White House staff members, including Larry Summers, the director of the National Economic Council, are on the program. President Obama is not on the official list of speakers, but the White House says he will speak Monday night and his remarks will be streamed at http://www.WhiteHouse.gov/live.

"This is not simply an exercise in public outreach or public diplomacy,” Ben Rhodes, the White House deputy national security adviser, insisted Friday. "We believe this is the beginning of forging tangible partnerships."

The U.S. government, often through the economic sections of its embassies, conducts outreach to connect to the local business communities in foreign countries and to boost American exports. But building ties specifically to Muslim small businesses and entrepreneurs is part of a broader American initiative to help create jobs and bolster economies of Islamic countries.

The idea borrows from efforts underway in the private sector to assist and mentor entrepreneurs and small-business owners—although not just Muslims—in impoverished countries. Some private groups have programs already underway:

• The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which holds a Global Entrepreneurship week to encourage young people to pursue their ideas.
• Goldman Sachs funds programs to help female entrepreneurs and small business owners in emerging economies and in the United States.
• Endeavor, a New York-based non-profit, has offices in nine other countries and provides support to high-impact entrepreneurs in emerging markets. (Editor's note: Endeavor's Elmira Bayrasli will be blogging from the summit for Portfolio.com.)
• The Institute for the Economic Empowerment of Women brings female small business owners from Afghanistan and Rwanda for training in the United States.
• The Aspen Institute is holding a conference on innovation and creativity in Abu Dhabi this summer, one of several projects to foster entrepreneurship in the Middle East
• The Thunderbird School of Global Business in Arizona sends students to some emerging economies, including Rwanda and Vietnam, to help would-be owners get their businesses off the ground.