The APEC Entrepreneurship Education Program (AEEP 2023) is organized by the Ministry of Education of South Korea in Seoul for countries that are included in the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) region as an entrepreneurship education program for APEC member students.
There are 7 countries participating in this program (Taiwan, Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea) in this year South Korea as the host AEEP 2023. Each country was represented by its 2 best students and specifically South Korea was represented by 5 students from the best campuses there. So the total participants in this program are 19 students who have passed the selection through application forms and essays they wrote about entrepreneurship.
During the program, participants had the opportunity to listen to presentations and discussions with experts from APEC. In addition, they were challenged through a competition to make a Business Plan within the team during the program. This must be related to the theme of this year’s AEEP, namely “Establishment of a Community-Based Social Enterprise in the APEC Region”. The 19 best students were divided into 5 teams with different focus on problems.
Agnes Monica who is a Business Management student from Indonesia as a representative from the Vocational College (Sriwijaya State Polytechnic) was selected as 1st Winner in the competition along with other team members namely; Su Hyun Kim from Yonsei University, South Korea, Mark from National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan, and Linh from Foreign Trade University, Vietnam. With a focus on Food Security (Agriculture) issues, the four of them as Team A created InFo (Insight Fooding) as a Business Plan which brought their team to 1st Place when it was announced at the AEEP 2023 Closing Ceremony in Seoul, South Korea this year.
The second place was won by Team D (Representatives from Korea, Vietnam and Thailand), and the third place was won by Team C (Representatives from Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia and the Philippines). Besides Agnes, Siti Nuraeni also represented Indonesia as a representative from the Academic Higher Education (Bogor Agricultural Institute) who won the third place.
Through this award that was achieved by Agnes and her team members, the four of them had the opportunity to be invited again by APEC to attend the next series of activities next September as a prize for the success of their Business Plan. Thus, Agnes will be the only representative of Indonesia at the event apart from representatives from South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam.
As a 4th semester student at the Business Administration Department of the Sriwijaya State Polytechnic (Polsri), in Business Management Study Program, Agnes expressed her gratitude for the opportunity that had been given by the Director General of PTV and the full support from the Director representing the Polsri as well as the Department of Business Administration and her supervisor, namely Mr. Beni Wijaya, so that he can go to Seoul and learn a lot and at the same time make achievements through the Program.
“As a KIP-K scholarship recipient, the opportunity to go abroad like this is like a dream and thank God I can make my parents, lecturers, and friends proud,” said Agnes. Congratulations to Agnes and Team, we hope this award can inspire others, and keep up the enthusiasm for achievements !!! (Sat, 01/07/2023).