The AEON 1% Club Foundation, a member of Japanese retail and financial services corporation AEON, granted 60 scholarships to Vietnamese university students at a ceremony held in Ha Noi on Tuesday.

Yohsei Honda, Secretary General of the AEON 1% Club Foundation, said the AEON Scholarship is an allowance-based scholarship for university students in various Asian countries and self-financed Asian students studying in Japan.

The project, designed to “Support the Dreams of Asian Students”, was started in 2006 in the hope that recipients will play an active role in the future, connecting their home countries with Japan in their respective specialist fields. In addition to year-round financial support, the project offers opportunities for various study curriculums and volunteer activities aimed at scholarship students studying in Japan, and provides support for students aiming to develop into global talent.

In Viet Nam, the "AEON Scholarship" has been awarded to a total of 626 university students, including two universities in Ha Noi since 2012 and two in HCM City since 2011.

This year in Ha Noi, students from the University of Social Sciences and Humanities and the Foreign Trade University were honoured to receive the scholarships. At the Scholarship Certificate Granting Ceremony, scholarship students gave speeches on their personal dreams and goals.

Honda said the AEON 1% Club Foundation was established in 1989 in Japan, has been operating based on 1 per cent of pre-tax profit donated by the major AEON Group companies, engaging in projects with three main themes of “Sound Development of the Next Generation, Promotion of Friendship with Foreign Countries, and Sustainable Development of Regional Communities.”

A similar scholarship awarding ceremony will take place in HCM City on Wednesday.

Since its establishment, the "AEON scholarship" has supported 5,117 students in 35 universities and colleges across Japan, China, Thailand, Viet Nam, Indonesia, Cambodia and Myanmar. — VNS