Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attends "National Startup Festival for Students 2023" in Hue

At the festival, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh hoped that the young generation would always persevere, dare to commit, unite, and be creative to nurture dreams and arouse the desire to start a business; believing that the passions, ambitions, and aspirations of the youth will continue to be nurtured, take flight, and become reality, contributing to building an increasingly powerful and prosperous country and a more prosperous and happy people.

On March 25, in Hue City, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), the Central Committee of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union chaired and coordinated with the People's Committee of Thua Thien - Hue province to organize the "5th National Student Startup Festival 2023" (SV_STARTUP 2023).

Attending the event were Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son; Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung; Deputy Ministers of Health, Construction, Industry and Trade..., leaders of provinces and cities, representatives of universities, high schools, secondary schools, businesses, investors interested in creative startups and thousands of students across the country.

Promoting entrepreneurial aspirations

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh expressed his excitement to see students full of enthusiasm, expressing their aspirations in entrepreneurship and innovation at the hall as well as across the country.

“Aspiration is the driving force, the ambition that urges us to move forward, to conquer our dreams; it is the ardent desire for good things for ourselves and society. Aspiration, whether big or small, simple or vibrant, profound or open, is very valuable, very encouraging, a light that illuminates the bumpy road of life to the future, to success. The same goes for the desire to start a business,” said the Prime Minister.

According to the Prime Minister, in recent years, the Party and State have paid special attention to, and have effectively issued and implemented many policies and guidelines to support and encourage startups and innovation. The startup movement has spread widely from cities to rural areas and to remote, border, island and ethnic minority areas. The entrepreneurial spirit and the desire to start a business have begun to flourish in most classes and generations of people, especially among the youth, students and pupils.

In particular, the National Startup Festival for students, held annually, has truly become an intellectual playground, a place to form ideas, conduct scientific research, and share values to promote the entrepreneurial aspirations of young people. At the same time, it creates a favorable environment to support students in forming and realizing startup ideas and projects.

The Prime Minister requested ministries, branches and localities to create a favorable environment, conditions and legal basis for young people to start businesses and innovate in the most convenient, effective, lowest cost and least risky way, inspiring, motivating and promoting trends and movements of start-ups and innovation; supporting the implementation of start-ups and innovation and promoting the commercialization of youth products; encouraging and protecting those who dare to start businesses and innovate.

Universities and vocational training institutions need to promote the strong development of the startup ecosystem in the industry. Schools are the foundation; teachers are the driving force; students are the center and subject of startups and innovation. Focus on discovering, encouraging, nurturing, and developing creative and startup ideas to practically serve themselves, their families, the community, and society, enriching themselves legitimately, contributing to building an independent and self-reliant economy associated with proactive, active, deep, substantive, and effective international integration... The Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union must motivate, inspire, and spread the desire for startups and innovation among young people; continue to create movements, playgrounds, and environments, honor, and contribute to "supporting" and nurturing startup and innovation ideas of young people, especially students...

“I hope you will always try to study and practice well; have faith and responsibility for yourself, your family and society; have passion, ambition, aspiration to rise up, the will to establish yourself and your career; always persevere, dare to commit; unite, be bold and creative to cherish your dreams and arouse your desire to start a business. Going will lead to success, doing will bring results, failure is the mother of success. You must be persistent, brave and aspirational. With aspiration and passion, you will start a business, have success, create new values, get rich with your strength, intelligence, culture and ethics through starting a business and innovation, contributing to building an increasingly powerful and prosperous Vietnam; the Vietnamese people will become more and more prosperous and happy,” the Prime Minister shared.

Meaningful playground, connecting startups

SV_STARTUP is an annual activity jointly organized by the Ministry of Education and Training to implement the project "Supporting students to start a business by 2025" according to Decision No. 1665/QD-TTg dated October 30, 2017 of the Prime Minister.

The festival aims to promote the entrepreneurial spirit of students, helping them change their mindset, awareness, dare to think, dare to do and have great aspirations to turn dreams and ideas into reality. This is also an opportunity to enhance connection activities, promote investment for highly feasible startup ideas and projects of students.

This year's festival received the support of 63/63 Departments of Education and Training, more than 400 universities, more than 50 businesses, and supporting funds. The highlight of the 5th SV_STARTUP is the "Students with Startup Ideas" contest held nationwide with a total prize value of 710 million VND. This contest is for students aged 12-24 studying at junior high schools, high schools, colleges, and universities nationwide.

The competition was launched in November 2022. The Organizing Committee received 508 projects in 5 fields: industry, product manufacturing; agriculture, forestry, fishery; education, tourism, services, finance; healthcare, beauty technology; social impact business. From the 508 projects, the Organizing Committee selected the 80 best projects for the voting and final rounds of the competition. Each field will have 3 typical projects to participate in the presentation at the Startup Festival. After the competition ends, potential projects of the student group can be supported by higher education institutions to transfer to the community.

Along with the competition, accompanying activities such as Hue Cuisine Festival, cultural exchange activities, space for displaying ideas and startup projects will also be held.

Also at the 5th SV_STARTUP, the forum “Connecting the network of innovation and startup centers of universities and colleges” and the workshop “Assessing the current situation and solutions for implementing startup support activities in high schools” will be held. This is an opportunity for students to interact, exchange and learn from speakers and experts from many different industries, thereby better understanding the entrepreneurial spirit, being supported and motivated so that their startup dreams are shaped and oriented more clearly.

It is known that after 4 times of organization, SV_STARTUP has attracted more than 20,000 participants with more than 2,500 startup ideas and projects from students, 70% of the projects have products and 30% of the projects are ideas or products at the trial production level. In addition, more than 40 seminars, talks, and inspirational forums have been organized.

The festival lasts until March 26.

“We believe that the National Startup Festival is an opportunity for students nationwide to interact, exchange experiences, promote the spirit of entrepreneurship and scientific research. This is also an event that helps officials, lecturers, teachers and students of Thua Thien - Hue province have the opportunity to approach, learn, and create motivation to develop the startup movement, contributing to the completion of the goal of the Startup Capital Project approved by the Provincial People's Committee”, Chairman of the People's Committee of Thua Thien - Hue province Nguyen Van Phuong

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