The ASEAN+3 Young Entrepreneurs Forum has opened in Ho Chi Minh City, with its agenda set for highlighting the significant role of young entrepreneurs in realizing the sustainable development goal of Southeast Asian countries.

The event is held by the National Committee on Youth of Vietnam in collaboration with the Central Committee of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union and the Vietnam Youth Federation.

This is part of a series of activities before the official establishment of the ASEAN Community on December 31.

The forum runs from December 11 to 14, with the participation of 65 young entrepreneurs, young leaders, anf officials from the ASEAN+3 cooperation mechanism, which includes 10 ASEAN countries and Japan, China and South Korea.

Launched under the topic of ASEAN+3 young entrepreneurs toward sustainable development, the forum aims to emphasize the importance of regional sustainable economic evelopment, to highlight the important role of young entrepreneurs in reaching the goals of establishing the ASEAN Economic Community in particular and contributing to the building of an ASEAN Community for sustainable development in general.

The ASEAN+3 Young Entrepreneurs Forum also hopes to create the chance for ASEAN+3 young entrepreneurs to boost regional trade cooperation and investment, to exchange business models, as well as to raise awareness of young people of the ASEAN Communtiy and introduce Vietnam’s socio-economic development achievements.

The event organizers also invite famous speakers in Vietnam and in the Southeast Asian region to give presentations and discuss with young entrepreneurs such topics as opportunities and challenges, young enterprises toward the ASEAN Economic Community’s sustainable development, and the role of youth in promoting business initiatives and developing a sustainable ASEAN Community.

Thirteen outstanding young entrepreneurs will also be cherry-picked for the “Young Entrepreneurs Toward the ASEAN+ Economic Community’s Sustainable Development” award.

Within the framework of the forum, participants will meet Ho Chi Minh City leaders and visit enterprises at the Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park in the southern province of Binh Duong.

They will also have exchanges with young Vietnamese entrepreneurs, especially from Ho Chi Minh City and Binh Duong, as well as students studying economics, trade and other related fields.

Visits to historical and cultural relics and landscapes in Ho Chi Minh City and Binh Duong will also be organized.

Since 1997, the ASEAN+3 cooperation mechanism has functioned as a coordinator of cooperation between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the three East Asian nations of China, Japan, and South Korea.

ASEAN is comprised of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam.

The ASEAN Community is the realization of the vision of ASEAN leaders for the regional group to build and achieve community status by 2015.

The community includes a political, security and socio-cultural dimension in a region with governments of diverse forms, according to Reuters.

The launch of the ASEAN Community is considered a momentous milestone in the grouping’s history, as it marks the significant achievement of the cooperation and integration goals set by regional member countries since its inception in 1967.

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