Tin Mar Lar Thein (centre), from Myanmar, won the first place at the competition which was announced during the closing ceremony of the 2022 Young Scientist Programme held in HCM City on July 15. (Photo courtesy of Teresa Trinh Nguyen) This year's programme, part of the Mekong-US partnership, focusedon agricultural technology and innovation.
The programme, sponsored by the US Department of Stateand organised by Arizona State University (ASU) in partnership with Ho Chi MinhCity University of Technology and Education in HCM City, focused onagricultural technology and innovation.
The programme is centered around fostering collaboration,knowledge sharing and the creation of a network of young scientists in the fiveLower Mekong countries.
It's a hybrid format, with participants taking virtual lessonsfrom their home country in entrepreneurship and innovation from ASU faculty forone month.
These classes prompted participants to drill down on their problemstatement and laid the foundation for outlining their investor pitch.
The participants were brought together for a 5-day immersiveexperience in HCM City to hear from agri-tech entrepreneurs, investors, andindustry collaborators through a series of panels, keynotes, and informativesessions.
The in-person programme emphasised the importance of agriculturaltechnology on the development and economic health of the Mekong countries.
In addition, agri-tech entrepreneurs provided insight in theirsuccess, challenges, and lessons learned through their start-ups, whileinvestors and industry connectors identified what they search for whenconsidering investments and collaboration with local start-ups.
Speakers represented various educational technology companies,investor agencies, and change makers, such as AWS, Ascend Vietnam Ventures, andSNV.
“The Young Scientist Programme is just one part of the commitmentof the US to help Mekong countries address the unique challenges that the deltafaces. Education and research collaboration are extremely important and that’swhy we do this,” said Robert Greenan, Acting Consul General of the US inHCM City, during his welcome remarks earlier in the week.
“We hope that through this programme, early career scientists likeyourselves in this region will continue to have an opportunity to do their goodwork, to collaborate on research, to come together to find the solutions to thetransnational problems.”
The Mekong-US Partnershippromotes the stability, peace, prosperity, andsustainable development of the Mekong sub-region through cooperationamong the Mekong partner countries and the US.
It further reinforces the strong and longstandingrelationship among the US, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar,Thailand, and Vietnam.
The partnership builds upon 11 yearsof cooperation and progress to expand collaboration in the faceof new challenges and opportunities.
The partnership supports the implementation ofthe ASEAN Community Vision and is an integral partof support and cooperation between the US and ASEAN. The Mekong– US Partnership provides a variety of programmes and engagements,including US educational programs, regional exchanges, capacity building,and seed funding.
Jeffrey Goss, Associate Vice Provost of Southeast Asia Initiativesat Arizona State University, emphasised the need to maintain relationships fromthe program to continue supportive collaboration.
“Something like this is the result of collaboration of like-mindedindividuals who believe that people have the power to improve theircommunities. I encourage you to leverage the relationships you’ve madethroughout the program as a supporting system to drive positive change,"he said.
The programme concluded with a pitch competition where eachparticipant delivered their agri-tech solution to a panel of judges in pursuitof the grand prize, 15,000 USD in seed grant funding to implement theirsolution.
The judges represented start-up incubators and higher educationprofessionals in the region.
Tin Mar Lar Thein, from Myanmar, won the first place at thecompetition which was announced during the closing ceremony on July 15,for her project on value-added ginger health drinks.
With the application of technology, her project helps local gingergrowers to earn more income and consumers to find healthy drinks made fromginger.
She said the programme should be continued in the future to helpyoung entrepreneurs like her to gain more confidence./.
VNA
