A Promising Future for Entrepreneurship in Asia Pacific
March 4, 2021
JA Asia Pacific held its first virtual edition of the FedEx Express/JA International Trade Challenge this week. Fifty-two students from Mainland China, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam came together online for this year’s Challenge. Each team of two worked to imagine and create a market entry strategy for a mental well-being product that would be sold in South Africa.
Having competed in local competitions over seven months against 2,900 aspiring student entrepreneurs, the 52 competitors were paired at random with complete strangers, with some teams including teammates who might not even speak the same native language. This year, the 14th in the Challenge’s history, Chloe Jazzy Lau from Hong Kong SAR and Aljo Benedicto from the Philippines of The Breakfast Club came out on top with their idea for a biometric sensor powered by a smartphone app to detect anxiety attacks.
“We are both honored to be named the winners of the competition,” Chloe and Aljo said. “It’s so exciting! Every stage of the competition has been a fantastic challenge for us, especially in the finals. All of the ideas were so strong and we learned volumes from this experience. We really feel inspired to follow a career in business right now.”
Per usual, there was no shortage of inspiring ideas at the ITC. Second-place winner Team Lumos—Sakthivell Ahrumugam from Singapore and Chaeyoon Park from South Korea—conceptualized a smart bike that would help track the rider’s mental well-being, and third-place winner Viennese Medicos—Raine Santiago Nakpil from the Philippines and Theethad Thipsoda from Thailand—imagined a smart lamp with a sleep monitoring function.
Of course, no JA competition is complete without its panel of impressive judges and inspiring speakers. This year’s Grand Final judges included Darius Yuen, Founder, Zhong Yi Investment Managers (Hong Kong SAR), Naysan Munusamy, Co-Founder, MoneyMatch (Malaysia), Neptune Factor, Founder and CEO, ECFulfill Inc. (Philippines), and Jenny Kwang, Co-Founder and Managing Director, J&CO Jewellery (Singapore). Judge Nepture Factor also shared his story as the Entrepreneurial Journey speaker.
“The creativity and enthusiasm that the students have shown during the competition is truly inspiring. Each team demonstrated innovative thinking to solving real-world business challenges all of which are directly applicable to the post-COVID world,” said Kawal Preet, president, Asia, Middle East, and Africa (AMEA) region, FedEx Express. “As a supporter of youth entrepreneurship and a proponent of small businesses in Asia Pacific, we believe that empowering the next generation will help the region prepare for what’s next and help bring the global marketplace to our doorstep.”
“I am very grateful that in the face of a global pandemic we were able to once again provide a stage for our students and complete another very successful iteration of the ITC competition, doing so virtually for the first time ever,” said Maziar Sabet, President and CEO of JA Asia Pacific. “Our students showed a great deal of resilience and remained undaunted by the changes posed by a virtual format. Entrepreneurship is about leadership, and our ITC participants displayed it in abundance!”
Congratulations to all the competitors and winners!