HCM CITY — Eleven individuals and businesses were yesterday conferred the 2018 I-Star Award and a cash prize of VNĐ50 million (US$2,140) for their creativity, innovation and services rendered to the community.

The awards are given in four categories: business start-ups showing creativity and economic efficiency; organisations or individuals offering solutions that benefit the community; media work that has great a impact on the community; and investors, consultants and incubator organisations that support innovation and start-ups.

Launched by HCM City at the end of March, the awards committee had received 197 applications from which 40 were chosen for the final round.

A group of experts and online voters from the community chose the eventual winners.

The first category had three winners, Freelanceer Việt Co.,Ltd, Vé Xe Rẻ (cheap bus tickets) JSC and Ekid Studio JSC.

WEBGIS of HCM City’s Preventive Medicine Centre for its geographic information system technology for surveillance of infectious diseases and the Bình Thạnh District’s People’s Committee for applying information technology in management of pavements won in the second category.

Di Lâm of Sài Gòn Giải Phóng (Liberated Sài Gòn) newspaper, Vũ Tuấn Anh of Thời báo Kinh tế Sài Gòn (Sài Gòn Economic Times), and Lê Nhật Thành, Tạ Ngọc Dung and Hồ Tùng Duy from Nhân Dân TV won in the third category.

Sài Gòn Hi-tech Park Incubation Centre, Business Start-up Support Centre and the Information Technology Park at the Viet Nam National University in HCM City were the winners in the fourth.

The prize money for the awards were donated by businesses, organisations and individuals.

The awards were given at the Riverside Palace on the sidelines of the “Week for HCM City Innovation, Start-ups and Entrepreneurship” event from October 15 to 19. — VNS