Visa and Central Committee of Vietnam Students’ Association kick off financial literacy program 2020 for Vietnamese students to showcase entrepreneurial spirit through nationwide start-up competition

09/11/2020

Visa and the Central Committee of Vietnam Students’ Association (CCVSA) launches its ninth annual financial literacy program with its “Master finance, drive ideas down to Earth” theme. The program is designed to equip students with financial management skills, thereby assisting them in executing startup ideas in practice.

 

Visa, the world’s leader in digital payments, together with the Central Committee of Vietnam Students’ Association (CCVSA) have today launched its 9th annual financial literacy program, with the support of VinaCapital, to provide financial management skills to young people across the country. 

Vietnam is fast becoming a tech hub in the ASEAN region, with 3,000 start-ups having launched in recent years¹. Supporting this trend, Visa has selected a start-up theme for this year’s program, with VinaCapital playing a key role in educating students in financial awareness in a business-building context, in the hope of inspiring more students to pursue their entrepreneurial aspirations.

Madame Dang Tuyet Dung, Visa Country Manager for Vietnam and Laos, said: “This year’s program aims to build on the success of previous years as we work to provide lifelong financial skills to the people of Vietnam. We continue to be encouraged by the diversity and high standard of student submissions and we look forward to seeing how the context of a start-up can be applied to developing strong financial literacy among students and inspire the next generation of business innovators.” 

The program will provide student entrepreneurs with many of the financial management skills required to run a successful start-up. A space exploration theme will be used to add to the excitement as students take on the role of astronauts on a journey through space on a mission to achieve their start-up pursuits. The format will see students forming teams of three to develop their ideas and pitch their business plan to a panel of judges with a chance to win prizes totaling a value of VND 110,000,000. 

Mr. Nguyen Minh Triet, Permanent Vice President of CCVSA shared: “In the school year of 2020-2021, CCVSA will deploy a series of solutions to equip students with knowledge and skills to start a start-up. We believe that this Financial Literacy program 2020 that kicks off the chain of activities will create an exciting and attractive playground and attracts a large number of students to sign up.”

A series of challenges will see the student business plans orbiting back to Earth, with Visa representing the central “space station” that will provide students with crucial funding for their start-up concepts, in addition to other expert resources in the form of an online Start-up Survival Toolkit. The toolkit will include a “Capital Detecting Radar”, advising on everything from self-funding to loans and investment, an “Expenses Steering Wheel”, helping students to navigate cashflow and business expenses, and a “Risk Mitigating Shield”, which will drive participants to evaluate threats to the business, including resource management, information security and risks. 

Among the highly valuable resources offered to participants, shortlisted candidates will be offered a rare opportunity to receive one-to-one support from industry leaders and field experts. Most notably, a key ambassador of this year’s program will be Ms. Thai Van Linh, an inspiring figure in the business community and a speaker at Forbes Women’s Summit 2019. Ms. Linh will “captain” the student start-up missions as a mentor and keynote speaker to help participants better plan their executional strategies throughout the competition, a role that will involve imparting wisdom she has developed over her many years as an entrepreneur.

Mr. Hoang Duc Trung, Deputy Managing Director of VinaCapital added: “As the leading asset management and investment management group in Vietnam, we are glad to be involved as a key partner in this year’s program. Financial management skill is one of the most important skills for every individual and business, especially the young people with the aim of starting a business. We are excited to equip students with critical financial management skills to develop their ideas, win this program and create a head-start with enough skills and motivation before entering the real big market.”

Students from all universities and colleges across Vietnam are invited to form teams and submit their business ideas before 12 October, by registering for the contest at http://kynangquanlytaichinh2020.com/. Students will be asked to present their ideas in two stages, the first being a 300-word written pitch, followed by a visual representation of the concept in the form of a poster image for voting from 02 October to 19 October. 

Seven ideas will then be selected by a panel of judges to advance to the next rounds. The competition will span six weeks with each round involving funding sponsorship, cash prizes and other rewards such as field trips and exclusive access to business leaders. The program will culminate in the competition’s finale event on 18 December, during which the winning team will be awarded VND 60,000,000 in investment funding towards their start-up idea. 

To learn more about the competition terms and conditions, visit http://kynangquanlytaichinh2020.com/.

 

 

 

¹ Business Times Singapore: Opportunities to start up in Vietnam

 

About Visa Inc. 

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is the world’s leader in digital payments. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, reliable and secure payment network - enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. Our advanced global processing network, VisaNet, provides secure and reliable payments around the world, and is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second. The company’s relentless focus on innovation is a catalyst for the rapid growth of digital commerce on any device for everyone, everywhere. As the world moves from analog to digital, Visa is applying our brand, products, people, network and scale to reshape the future of commerce. For more information, visit About Visa, visa.com/blog and @VisaNews.