Imran Qidwai is the president of Zaviah, a high-tech consultancy firm, and a managing partner at Totten Energy Services, an energy company, both in Boston.

Experts and entrepreneurs from around the world discuss what governments can do to promote high-tech entrepreneurship and what the shape of technology entrepreneurship will be in the future.

What do you do when you want $1 billion in investment to come your way? You prepare to grab it. That’s what New England Clean Energy Council(NECEC) is trying to do.

Launched in 2007, it aims to accelerate New England’s clean energy economy by building a community of stakeholders and a world-class cluster of clean-tech companies. If the council members – clean energy firms, venture capital funds, major financial institutions, local universities, large commercial end-users and others – set up an effective system of education, training as well as technology development and technology adoption, the region may get $1 billion in clean-tech investment by 2012, according to a 2008 report from several consultancies.

This system already has taken shape to a large degree. NECEC has worked with the Massachusetts legislature to design the framework for a clean energy seed grant program and a green jobs initiative.

Recognizing that successful new businesses are created by repeat entrepreneurs and experienced executives, NECEC launched the Clean Energy Fellowship Program, an intensive, 3-month educational “boot camp” focused on transitioning entrepreneurs and corporate officers from other tech industries into the clean energy sector. This was in response to a key finding of the report that insufficient entrepreneurial talent was the biggest obstacle to clean-tech innovation in the region. The first group of 12 fellows graduated from the program in 2008.

Some of the 25 “graduates” of 2009 banded together to launch the Clean Energy Fusion Center in Waltham, in the heart of Boston’s famed Rt. 128 high-tech cluster. This so-called “syncubator,” a business incubator designed to develop synergies between startups from related sectors, has become home to some early-stage clean-tech companies. As part of the center, I and Paul Sereiko have started an energy services company to provide commercial, industrial, institutional and municipal building owners and long-term tenants a one-stop shop for renewable energy projects. We take them from selecting appropriate technology to financial engineering, using all available federal and state incentives and finding financing. Another venture — Seven Solar — launched by the program’s fellows has already graduated out of the center into a building where it plans to set up pilot manufacturing.

NECEC must be doing something right as in February it was ranked the second best clean-tech cluster worldwide by Sustainable World Capital, a firm that connects institutional investors with ecologically sustainable companies. I hope this means we are getting closer to the $1 billion pot.