HSBC 'challenges' young entrepreneurs

Source From (Business Times): http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BTIMES/articles/hsbz/Article/

Published: on 10 April 2012

KUALA LUMPUR: HSBC Bank Malaysia Bhd is holding the eleventh edition of the HSBC Young Entrepreneur Challenge (YEC) with more than RM20,000 in cash prizes awaiting the winners in Malaysia.

The winners would also win a once in a lifetime opportunity to participate in a regional competition in Hong Kong for the gold prize winning team plus a business start-up.

The YEC is one of the few regional competitions targeting students pursuing vocational, college and university education.

The competition provides a platform for enthusiastic young minds to showcase their unique ideas and benchmark themselves against their peers, both locally and regionally.

"The YEC provides students of higher learning with the much needed opportunity to experience real life business situations as well as develop core competencies, such as critical thinking and decision-making while realising their full potential through a vibrant and robust competition," said Marlene Kaur, HSBC's head of group communications (Malaysia) and corporate sustainability at the launch of the competition here yesterday.

She added that HSBC recognises that youth as future business leaders. Through the YEC, it hopes to nurture and inspire youth and enhance their knowledge and capability by providing entrepreneurship and leadership opportunities.

"The YEC challenges young people to work together to create innovative business ideas and helps support the development of business acumen among young people," she added,

For 2012, HSBC is proud to partner SIFE Malaysia, given SIFE's knowledge and strong nationwide network to take the competition to the next level in the hope of discovering the next leading edge business idea.

"SIFE Malaysia is honoured to be the first external partner for this prestigious annual competition. We will be an effective channel to get quality participation," said its country director Datin Norela Nuruddin.

For the regional level competition, the Malaysian team will compete against other teams from Bangladesh, Brunei, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Thailand.

The winning team will compete for the grand prize of HK$50,000 (RM19,780) plus the opportunity to win the Asia Technopreneur Award with a cash prize of HK$20,000 (RM7,912) and a fast track admission to a start-up technology or bio-tech programme of up to HK$1.4 million.

Interested participants from local university, college or vocational educational institutions are encouraged to register online for the competition.

HSBC has received participation from more than 3,500 students since YEC's launch in 2001.