Fourteen outstanding business leaders from Viet 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 Viet Nam.

The awardees include Dang Van Thanh, founder and president of TTC Group; Hoang Nguyen Thu Thao, CEO of Nguyen Hoang Group; Doan Hong Viet, founder, CEO and chairman of Digital World; Hoang Duc Thao, chairman and general director of Ba Ria-Vung Tau Urban Sewerage and Development Limited Company; and Le Viet Hai, chairman and CEO of Hoa Binh 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 Viet 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, Hoang Nguyen Thu Thao, CEO of Nguyen Hoàng Group, said: "Receiving this award is not only about my own happiness but also for more than 2,000 staff of Nguyen Hoang 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