The cooperation signing ceremony between the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (UEH) and the Southern National Startup Advisory Council: Nurturing Vietnamese Entrepreneurs

To diversify activities and promote start-up support for students, on the morning of January 22nd, 2021, at Campus B, the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (UEH) held a cooperation signing ceremony between the university and the Southern National Startup Advisory Council. Besides the signing ceremony, the Gala summarized startup activities in 2020 and launched activities in 2021 of the Southern National Startup Advisory Council, taking place in such an exciting atmosphere.

Established in 2014, the South National Startup Advisory Council has the function of advising and supporting startup activities for students and the youth in Southern Vietnam. After six years of operation, the Council has brought about many practical values to the community and society, especially many generations of university students.

Attending the event, on the side of the Southern National Startup Advisory Council, there were MSc.Vo Thi Phuong Lan - Chairman, President of the Board - General Director of My A Logistics Joint Stock Company (ASL); Mr. Huynh Thanh Van - Executive Vice President, Chairman of S Furniture Joint Stock Company; Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy - Standing Vice President; Ms. Le Thi Thanh Lam - Vice President of External Relations, Deputy General Director of Saigon Food Joint Stock Company; Assoc.Prof.Dr. Trinh Thuy Anh - Vice President of Training, Head of Faculty of Business Administration of Ho Chi Minh City Open University and members of the Executive Board, who are businessmen, Doctors, and Masters currently working at universities and colleges.

On the UEH side, there was Dr. Bui Quang Hung - UEH Vice President; Assoc.Prof.Dr. Phan Thi Bich Nguyet - Chairman of Advisory Council cum Director of Institute of Innovation, along with unit leaders.

An overview of the signing ceremony

Opening the ceremony, Dr. Bui Quang Hung - UEH Vice President shared: Besides focusing on training, research, and consulting, the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City is also interested in developing students' entrepreneurship spirit - the young generation, in response to the Prime Minister's policy of launching the Startup movement among students. A prime example is the establishment of the Institute of Innovation based on a cooperation agreement between the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City and the Singapore Management University (SMU) in the presence of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc. Accordingly, the UEH Institute of Innovation’s Incubator model operates based on the Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (IIE) model of SMU. On the other hand, UEH also has many activities to support students to develop thinking, accumulate useful skills and experiences to be ready to start a business when there is an innovative direction,...

The Southern National Startup Advisory Council with its members being the entrepreneurs and lecturers of universities and colleges in Ho Chi Minh City, have had outstanding activities in mobilizing the share of effort, intelligence, time, and budget of the intellectuals and entrepreneurs for the national startup program. Therefore, we hope that the signing ceremony of this cooperation agreement will mark the beginning of a sustainable cooperative relationship and bring practical benefits to both sides.

Dr. Bui Quang Hung - UEH Vice President delivered the speech

The national startup program was initiated and implemented by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) in 2003. Until now, the program has been deployed to all provinces in the country, attracting hundreds of thousands of students to get access to this program. In 2014, VCCI established the Southern National Startup Advisory Council with the aim of enhancing activities to support Southern universities and colleges to implement the start-up policy of the Vietnam Communist Party and the State.

At the ceremony, MSc. Vo Thi Phuong Lan - Chairman of the Southern National Startup Advisory Council, shared: With the mission of incubating Vietnamese entrepreneurs, over the past 6 years, the Southern National Startup Advisory Council has trained, advised, and shared with thousands of students at Colleges and Universities all over the provinces. The Council recently received the I-star award from the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee to honor organizations and individuals with outstanding achievements in innovation and entrepreneurship. In the near future, the Council will establish the Mentoring Club to support young people with entrepreneurial ideas and many innovative investment programs. Ms. Lan hopes to accompany universities in the coming time to develop the next generation of business people to serve and meet the requirements of the country's development process in the new period.

MSc. Vo Thi Phuong Lan - Chairman of the Southern National Startup Advisory Council delivered a speech

To encourage UEH students to start their business and apply their knowledge in practice, the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City decided to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Southern National Startup Advisory Council through a number of typical contents: The two sides coordinate to participate in teaching knowledge and soft skills to students; coordinate to appoint lecturers/experts to train, instruct, and share experiences to develop start-up, innovative and smart management groups; organize seminars, workshops to resolve current affairs or topics that are of interest to the two sides; co-implement the Mentoring program for students,...

Leaders of two units signed the Memorandum of Understanding.

The cooperation signing ceremony between the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City - South National Startup Advisory Council has raised the cooperation relationship between the two companies to new heights; simultaneously, opens up many opportunities for students to actualize their innovative ideas and start-up passion.