At the Finale of the "VNU Startup and Innovation Ideas Contest 2021" held on 17 November 2021, Mr Jesse Choi – Director of Sunwah Vietnam said that the Contest marked a significant milestone for Sunwah Group and VNU’s partnership in innovation to foster the startup spirit among VNU Hanoi students and pave a global path for future entrepreneurs.

“On behalf of Sunwah Group and Sunwah Innovations, it is my pleasure to welcome all of you today at the Finale of the "VNU Startup and Innovation Ideas Contest 2021". It gives me great joy and honor to accommodate the Finale of the contest at the ULIS-Jonathan KS Choi Culture Centre - a symbol of Sunwah Group’s long-standing collaboration and friendship with the Vietnam National University of Hanoi. VNU Hanoi has long been known for its youth entrepreneurship support activities and we are pleased to join hands with VNU Hanoi to bring a startup competition to promising VNU students this year. It marks a significant milestone for our partnership in innovation to foster the startup spirit among VNU Hanoi students and pave a global path for future entrepreneurs. On this occasion, we would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to all judges, partners, and mentors who have devoted their time to making this contest happen!”

Sunwah Group, founded in 1957, is a Hong Kong-based international conglomerate with businesses in eight major sectors: Seafood and Foodstuffs, Real Estate, Financial Services, Technology, Infrastructure, Education and Training, Media, and Green Technology. The Group has been doing business in Vietnam for more than 50 years, beginning with seafood processing in the 1970s. Since then, the Group has continued to diversify its investment in Real Estate, Financial Services, Coffee Trading, Agricultural Products, and Dried Food. Our latest sector in Vietnam is Innovation.

To celebrate Sunwah Group's 50th anniversary in Vietnam, in December last year, we established our flagship Sunwah Innovation Center in Ho Chi Minh City, as well as launched the Sunwah International Innovation Platform. Sunwah Innovation Center Ho Chi Minh City is aimed to play an active role in growing Vietnam’s startup ecosystem and nurturing the next generation of innovative entrepreneurs. Apart from the Center in Ho Chi Minh City, we have also opened other Innovation Centers in Mainland China, including Guangzhou, Tianjin, Nanjing, Shenyang, Wuxi, and Beijing, and more to come in other places where Sunwah does business.

These Innovation Centers will be linked together as well as to the Sunwah International Innovation Platform to serve as a sharing network for the ecosystem stakeholders to facilitate cross-border information exchange, market exposure, connectivity, and program access. So far, the Platform has welcomed 27 Partners, including top universities, investment funds, incubators, and accelerators from Canada, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao, South Korea, Singapore, Cambodia, and Vietnam – among which VNU Hanoi is our key Partner in Vietnam. Throughout over 10 years of collaborations with multiple successful projects in education, social services, and international exchanges, Sunwah always treasures VNU Hanoi as one of the leading academic institutions, not only in Vietnam but also among all worldwide partners.

Vietnam has been emerged as the most active startup hub of Southeast Asia. However, the startup journey has never been easy, especially in this rapidly changing world. With the extensive network of mentors and resources from VNU Hanoi, Sunwah Innovations and the partners, I believe the “VNU Startup and Innovation Ideas Contest 2021” will provide a good starting point for aspiring entrepreneurs to incubate and accelerate their future ventures.

One of Sunwah Innovations’ goals is to bring the local startup ecosystem closer to the global arena and foster the influx of international opportunities to Vietnam. Therefore, we have been actively hosting, and supporting a variety of initiatives to connect the startup ecosystems across Asia. As an attempt to promote Vietnamese startups’ going global ambition, we will organize a hybrid seminar this December within TECHFEST-WHISE 2021 to introduce the potential of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area market. The event is supported by the HCMC Department of Science and Technology and Hong Kong’s leading innovation organization - Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks.