SABECO supporting young people to start creative businesses

Venus Teoh Kim Wei, deputy general director of Marketing and Communications at SABECO

Starting a business with bathing leaves, Chao Lao Ta, an individual from an ethnic minority group in the northern province of Lao Cai said, "In the past, bath leaves were just an experience handed down by the Dao people to help them reduce stress and fatigue and to cure diseases. Realising that tourists come for the experience and leave very satisfied, I returned to my hometown to research and improve it before distributing it to Sapa and other provinces across the country.”

Ta is very interested in learning how to easily expand and reach more customers.

This is one of many stories of youth entrepreneurship shared in The Young Empowerment training session by the Central Committee of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union in collaboration with SABECO that was held on July 7 in Sapa.

The coaching and mentoring programme by SABECO aims to empower, inspire, and connect youth startup projects to business opportunities by improving their capacities, knowledge, and skills.

Over the years, the ecosystem of creative start-up innovation has developed very strongly. There are more than 3,000 successful startups and many international investors in Vietnam. Particularly in rural areas, many young people have decided to leave the city and return to their hometowns to start a business in recent years.

Accompanying the series of activities by the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, Venus Teoh Kim Wei, deputy general director of Marketing and Communications at SABECO – and also an expert leading the training session in Sapa – commented, “To succeed in today's fiercely competitive environment, startups should be associated with innovation with three main foundations – initiative, technology, and intellectual property. Innovative ideas must be unique to increase efficiency, reduce costs, develop new markets, and most importantly, bring value to consumers."

This is the first activity in the series of programmes to support rural youth with economic development that will be organised by the Central Youth Union in many provinces and cities across the country.

There were 65 members taking part in the training session in Sapa province. They were young people with economic development models and those receiving the Luong Dinh Cua Award – an annual award from the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union Central Committee given to young people in rural areas with outstanding achievements in production, business, modern technologies, environmental protection, and the building of new rural lifestyles.

At an MoU signing with the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union in April, Bennett Neo, general director of SABECO reaffirmed that “Our sustainable development strategy revolves around four pillars, namely country, culture, consumption, and conservation. This strengthens our commitment to sustainable development for the prosperity of the country and the people of Vietnam.”

Leveraging local resources

The main focus of SABECO in 2022 is national development activities, with a focus on promoting and supporting the development of young talent, accompanying the youth in business startups, starting careers, providing livelihood support, and improving the competitiveness of small- and medium-sized household businesses.

Among the meaningful programmes and activities between SABECO and the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union is the Rural Youth Project Contest which aims to build a spirit among young people and create a favourable climate for rural youth startups, especially in high-tech agriculture.

Two months after launching the Rural Youth Startup Project Contest in 2022, Vu Minh Thao, deputy head of the Rural Youth Department from the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union said, "Up to now, 110 selected projects have entered the semi-finals. We will organise a series of training sessions in many provinces and cities across the country to provide young people with ways to survey the market, promote trade, and build production and business projects."

"Through a series of training courses to provide knowledge and skills, we hope that the young people will develop perfect economic models that are suitable to the actual conditions in their locality," added Thao.