HCM CITY — Fourteen outstanding business leaders from Việt Nam were honoured as winners of the prestigious Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Awards 2017 (APEA) at a ceremony held in HCM City on Tuesday, the first time it was held in Việt Nam.

The awardees include Đặng Văn Thành, founder and president of TTC Group; Hoàng Nguyễn Thu Thảo, CEO of Nguyễn Hoàng Group; Đoàn Hồng Việt, founder, CEO and chairman of Digital World; Hoàng Đức Thảo, chairman and general director of Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu Urban Sewerage and Development Limited Company; and Lê Việt Hải, chairman and CEO of Hòa Bình Construction Group.

Organised by Enterprise Asia, the APEA is a regional recognition programme that aims to bond leading entrepreneurs across the region to spur greater innovation, fair practises and entrepreneurship development.

The awards are presented to the finest entrepreneurs across the region each year, with award ceremonies held in over 13 countries, including Việt Nam.

The APEA is often compared to the Olympics for the stringent entry criteria and highly competitive judging parameters. 

Each nominee is subjected to a rigorous judging process, including financial verification by an appointed audit firm and mandatory physical site audits and interview, culminating in a confidential balloting process by Enterprise Asia’s committee.

This year, the awards’ received close to 50 nominees and 14 winners across 11 industries were selected.

At the ceremony, Hoàng Nguyễn Thu Thảo, CEO of Nguyễn Hoàng Group, said: "Receiving this award is not only about my own happiness but also for more than 2,000 staff of Nguyễn Hòang Group in our past 18 years who have made continuous efforts to be recognised by the international and local community. This encourages us to try more in the future, especially in the field of education that we are pursuing. This is also an opportunity for us to connect with Vietnamese and international businesspeople."

"We can say with certainty that the recipients of the APEA are like none others. Not only do they have to prove their entrepreneurial skills and experience in one of the toughest contests in the world, they also subject themselves to a pledge to uphold the  highest standards of entrepreneurship, which includes allegiance to the two founding  pillars of Enterprise Asia, namely Investment in People and Responsible Entrepreneurship", said William Ng, president of Enterprise Asia.

"The APEA is aimed at promoting entrepreneurship globally. Beyond recognising the efforts of these entrepreneurs, we hope to encourage them to continue taking their businesses to the next level in the current digital era, and in the process, provide more job opportunities to the people in the region.” — VNS