VNU Vice President Pham Bao Son attended, delivered a speech and presented awards at the event.

Attendees at the finale included Mr Pham Hong Quat, General Director of the National Agency for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Development, under the Ministry of Science and Technology; Mr Jesse Choi, Director of Sunwah Innovations, a member of Sunwah Group, Hong Kong (China); and representatives of sponsors and enterprises.

The “VNU Startup and Innovation Ideas Competition 2021”, organized by VNU and supported by Sunwah Innovations, aimed at promoting entrepreneurship among VNU young students, and creating an environment where all students can apply their knowledge into practice as well as nurture their creative ideas.

Mr Jesse Choi, Director of Sunwah Innovations, expressed his delight in being able to support and sponsor the competition, especially when the finale was organized at the ULIS – Jonathan KS Choi Cultural Centre - the symbol of the long-term partnership between Sunwah Group and VNU.

“This competition is an important milestone for the partnership between Sunwah Group and VNU, especially in the innovation field, with the goal of encouraging entrepreneurship among students and creating a launchpad for young entrepreneurs. Over the past 10 years of cooperation and development with many projects in the fields of education, social activities and international exchanges, Sunwah Group has always valued VNU as a close, long-term partner, a leading national and regional education and training institution”, said Mr Jesse Choi. He believed that, with an extensive network of advisors and resources from VNU, Sunwah Innovations as well as other partners, the “VNU Startup and Innovation Ideas Competition 2021” would create an incubator and a launchpad for future young entrepreneurs.

Mr Pham Hong Quat from the Ministry of Science and Technology said that, identifying the university as the cradle of the startup ecosystem, the National Program 844 entitled "Supporting the National Innovation Initiative to 2025" has so far supported startup support programs in dozens of universities and colleges in many provinces and cities across the country. Appreciating VNU's role in implementing the National Program 844, he believed that the “VNU Startup and Innovation Ideas Competition 2021” would bring valuable opportunities for students to exchange and get experience with their own startup ideas.

VNU Vice President Pham Bao Son said that, with the mission of a leading interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary university as well as a major national science, technology and innovation organization, VNU was always aware of its high responsibility to provide comprehensive training for students, link training with scientific research, innovation, and improving student employability.

Oriented to be a research and innovation university, in recent years, VNU has paid special attention to promoting innovation activities in general and innovative start-ups in particular. VNU has gradually incorporated Entrepreneurship and Innovation courses into its training programs to foster students’ entrepreneurship knowledge and skills; develop research results in the direction of meeting market requirements and get them ready to be put into innovative start-up activities of lecturers, scientists and students. Entrepreneurship competitions held at VNU’s member universities and affiliated schools and at VNU level are also an important way to encourage the development of innovative start-ups at VNU.

The “VNU Startup and Innovation Ideas Competition 2021”, run since June 2021, attracted 43 participating teams. After several qualifying rounds, 12 teams were shortlisted for the finale. The Organizing Committee invited leading experts in the startup ecosystem to train the twelve finalists in improving their ideas/projects in Research and market orientation; Product development; Business planning skills; Business models improvement; Intellectual property rights for startup and innovation; and Pitching skills, from 2/10/2021 to 16/10/2021.

The Champion of the competition was SALEWORKS Team, from VNU University of Economics and Business, with the project “Salework e-commerce sales management platform”.

The Runner-up was GAMMA BOX Team, from VNU International School, with the project “Gamification Marketing”.

The Third prize and Popularity Award went to 3SR Team, from VNU University of Education, with the project “Smart waste recycling social network”.

The Consolation prizes were presented to ULISOUL Team from VNU University of Languages and International Studies and COMPOD TRAI CAY Team from VNU University of Science.