Sunwah Group on December 7 inaugurated the Sunwah Innovation Centre in HCM City. VNS Photo Thu Hằng

HCM CITY — Sunwah Group yesterday inaugurated the Sunwah Innovation Centre in HCM City, one of a series of events to celebrate its 50th anniversary in Việt Nam.

It aims to make the centre a key player in the local start-up eco-system that actively promotes innovation and entrepreneurship to help make the country a regional and global start-up hub.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Jesse Choi, director of Sunwah Vietnam and CEO of Sunwah Innovations said, “We have already opened innovation centres in Shenyang, Tianjin, Wuxi and Beijing in China.

“In future we will open other centres in Hà Nội, Phnom Penh, Japan, Canada, France, and other places where we do business.

“These innovation centres will be linked together as well as connected to our local and international partners in the innovation field to work as a platform where all of our start-ups can exchange their ideas, resources and networking.”

The Sunwah International Innovation Platform (SWIIP) was launched yesterday to create a global network of leading universities, institutes and organisations with the aim of leveraging the unique resources, business intelligence, and capabilities of each partner in the platform to move towards an innovation economy together.

So far there are 20 partners, including prestigious universities, investment funds, incubators, and accelerators from Canada, China, Hong Kong, Macao, Singapore, Cambodia, South Korea, and Việt Nam.

This year is an important milestone for Sunwah Group, one of the biggest Hong Kong enterprises in Việt Nam: its 50th year in Việt Nam.

Speaking at the group’s 50th anniversary in Việt Nam, Jonathan Choi, chairman of Sunwah Group and Sunwah Foundation, said, “From our own experience of half a century of co-operation with Việt Nam, Sunwah is confident about the future development of Việt Nam for its abundance of natural resources, stability, huge economic potential, and, above all, hard-working and creative labour force.”

To celebrate the 50th anniversary, Sunwah would launch a series of events in innovation, culture, environmental protection, and cinema, Choi, who is also the founding chairman of the Hong Kong – Việt Nam Chamber of Commerce, said.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Đặng Minh Khôi hailed Sunwah’s contributions to the socio-economic development of Việt Nam over the past 50 years.

Established in 1957 in Hong Kong, the company is a highly diversified conglomerate with business activities in mainland China, Macao, Southeast Asia, Japan, South Korea, Canada, the US, Europe and Australia.

Its business in Việt Nam now covers seafood and trading, real estate, financial services, agricultural and dried food products, coffee, and innovation. —VNS