Pinoys bag HSBC entrepreneur awards

MANILA, Philippines – An all-natural disposal food container made from coconut spathes won two university students from the Philippines the Best of the Best Award and an HSBC Business Development Fund of HK$100,000 in the regional competition for the HSBC Young Entrepreneur Awards 2008-09 recently. 

The HSBC Young Entrepreneur Awards aims to encourage undergraduate students to develop innovative and commercially viable business plans. Since the first awards in Hong Kong in 2000, the program has been launched in Bangladesh, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand involving 16,000 students comprising some 6,300 teams around Asia.

This year, more than 2,400 full-time university students from six Asian countries and territories formed 902 teams and took part in local competitions. The gold award team from each area made a formal business plan presentation to judges at HSBC’s Asia-Pacific headquarters in Hong Kong in the regional final.