The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd (HSBC) in Bangladesh held a prize distribution ceremony for the winners of the Young Entrepreneur Awards (YEA) 2008 at a ceremony at Sonargaon Hotel following a presentation by the 7 qualified teams.

YEA was originally launched amongst students in Hong Kong sevn years ago to encourage entrepreneurship, with a specific focus on nurturing innovation and creativity. Since that time, the programme has grown each year with students from Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei and Hong Kong participating in 2008. Last year, the Gold winning team from Bangladesh created history by winning the regional finals.

For the local competition, HSBC staff visited 16 universities in Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet and invited student teams to submit a 1-page synopsis of their business idea.

Over 330 teams from all over Bangladesh sent submissions and, following the initial judging, 30 teams were chosen for the second round. HSBC arranged a workshop for these 30 qualifying teams during which HSBC experts and a locally renowned entrepreneur shared their knowledge and experiences with the participants. The students were given training on how to turn their idea into a detailed business case that would be capable of securing bank financing.

In the second round, the 30 teams submitted detailed business plans from which 7 teams were selected for the Bangladesh finals. HSBC arranged a training session on “Presentation skills” for the 7 teams and subsequently provided each team with an opportunity to present their business cases to a judging panel of experts.

The final seven teams were from Dhaka University, Faculty of Business Studies - 3 teams, Chittagong university - 1 team, IBA - 2 teams and North South University - 1 team.

3 teams were selected as winners of the Gold, Silver and Bronze awards respectively on the basis of the merit of the business proposal, their depth of their understanding of business concepts, commercial viability, innovation, "bankability" and presentation skills.

Each of the 3 teams received cash prizes from HSBC. In addition, HSBC will be providing the 3 winning teams with a weeklong study trip in Hong Kong and China where the Gold winner will compete with the winners from the each of other regions for a cash prize of over bdt8.5 lac.

Speaking at the occasion, Mr Steve Banner, Chief Executive Officer of HSBC Bangladesh said that HSBC was proud to provide students with access to a regional competition that allowed them to showcase their innovation and creativity. He commended the participants for their ideas and expressed his hope that Bangladesh would continue to the tradition of winning at regional stages as shown by the students last year.

Mr Dr Arif Dowla, Managing Director of ACI Bangladesh Ltd thanked HSBC for providing students with this international opportunity and hoped that the winning teams would expand their knowledge base by interacting with their counterparts in the regional finals.

Mr Mustafizur R Khan, Head of Marketing and Public Relations of HSBC Bangladesh also spoke on the occasion.