PhD Nguyen Van Tan – First Prize Project Advisor, 2024 Southern Regional Competition

On the morning of 20 September 2024, in Vinh Long Province, the Vietnam Women’s Union organized the Award Ceremony for the 2024 Southern Regional Round of the “Women’s Innovative Entrepreneurship and Green Transformation” Competition. Among the 17 outstanding startup projects honored, Dong Nai Province had the project “Enhancing Production Capacity and Promoting the Commercialization of Certain Natural Health Products” by contestant Nguyen Thi Yen, owner of Yen Loc Rung Household Business (Thanh Son Commune, Dinh Quan District), which won First Prize at the Southern Regional Round. Notably, Lac Hong University had PhD Nguyen Van Tan – Head of The Faculty of Administration International Economics (FAIE) – serving as the project advisor.

The project was developed by leveraging the local resource advantages of Thanh Son Commune, which has a large forest land area and favorable climate and soil conditions for developing agricultural crops and valuable medicinal plants. Yen Loc Rung Household Business has focused on producing and trading natural health-beneficial products, with its flagship products being Five-Element Bean Powder and Grass Jelly Powder, both certified as OCOP 3-star products. Currently, these products are widely distributed in the market and well received by customers.
 

Figure 1. Ms. Nguyen Thi Yen (in pink attire) receiving the First Prize of the Competition

Figure 2. Dong Nai delegation attending the Award Ceremony

This year’s competition theme was “Women’s Innovative Entrepreneurship and Green Transformation.” The startup projects featured initiatives in utilizing clean and renewable energy sources; implementing organic and circular agricultural production; effectively using local resources; minimizing pollution and greenhouse gas emissions; saving raw materials, energy, natural resources, water, and chemicals; developing safe products beneficial to human health and environmentally friendly; addressing urgent and essential social issues; and creating practical value for the community, with the goal of economic development while ensuring environmental sustainability.

The Organizing Committee received 2,545 startup projects for the competition (an increase of 26% compared to the 2023 competition). Eighty of the most outstanding projects were selected to participate in the Regional Final Rounds held in representative provinces for the three regions: North, Central, and South. Projects winning Third Prize or higher at the Regional Finals will continue to compete in the National Final Round of the 2024 Women’s Entrepreneurship Competition, scheduled to take place in Hanoi from 10–12 October.

Figure 3. Ms. Nguyen Thi Yen presenting her project before the Judging Panel

Figure 4. Display and introduction of products by Ms. Nguyen Thi Yen

Accordingly, from 18–20 September 2024 in Vinh Long Province, the series of events for the Southern Regional Final Round was organized with various activities to widely promote the entrepreneurial spirit across the region, including: the Regional Final presentation round, the Regional Final Award Ceremony, the 2024 “Confident Vietnamese Women in Economic Development” Award Ceremony, and product display and introduction activities for projects competing in the Regional Final Round.

Nguyen Van Tan & Ngo Thi Kim Anh
According to Hong Anh – Board of Family and Social Economic Affairs