Inspire creative startup ideas

(Baonghean) - Recently, "Start up - Start a business" has been mentioned more and more among young people. The need to do business and start a business among young people has increased dramatically; the desire to establish a career, to get rich through strength and knowledge has been urging many young people to embark on the process of realizing their dreams.

Aspiration to start a business

By researching, learning and boldly investing in modern machines in production, promoting the advantages of local tea material areas, Mr. Le Ngoc Phuc (Thanh Thinh commune - Thanh Chuong district) has succeeded with an export tea bud production facility, achieving a revenue of 4 billion VND/year and creating jobs for many local workers. He is one of the typical Nghe An youths nominated for the Luong Dinh Cua Award.

Provincial leaders and the Provincial Youth Union pressed the button to launch the program "Nghe An Youth Start-up". Photo: Thanh Duy

However, few people know that to achieve the success he has today, Le Ngoc Phuc spent a lot of time looking for a way to start his own business. Lacking capital and experience, the young man struggled between many directions. However, the desire to start a business in his homeland was always the driving force that urged him to find every way to rise up.

After 3 years of working abroad in Korea, he borrowed another 1 billion VND from the bank to buy equipment and build a factory to produce tea buds in large quantities. Besides focusing on quality, Phuc focused on expanding the market. Up to now, overcoming all initial difficulties, he has become the Director of Phuc Hung Thinh Tea Company Limited with a factory scale of nearly 3,000 m2, processing and consuming 20 tons of fresh tea buds every day...

In recent years, many young people in Nghe An have nurtured the will to realize their dream of starting a business. From 2005 to now, Nghe An has had more than 70 youth models awarded the Luong Dinh Cua Award by the Central Youth Union. However, compared to the large number of young people in the province, that number is still very small.

In Ky Son - a remote area in the West of Nghe An, there are 4,598 union members and young people, but their economic life is facing many difficulties. Comrade Chu Quang Huy - Deputy Secretary of Ky Son District Union said: Although receiving a lot of support, it seems that the efforts of all levels and sectors have not been able to strongly stimulate the breakthrough in the startup ideas of the majority of union members and young people here. Most of the young people in Ky Son are ethnic minorities. Not only are they facing difficulties in capital, many young people are also "hungry" for knowledge of economics, science, and techniques in animal husbandry and cultivation.

As in Ky Son, having a sustainable career path is still an urgent need for the majority of young people in Do Luong. Right at the time of 2001, Do Luong successfully built a Youth Entrepreneurship Fund with an amount of more than 500 million VND to support 138 small and medium-sized economic models.

However, the models are mainly self-discovered and self-motivated, without a focal organization to connect the models together. In 2014, the Do Luong District Youth Entrepreneurship Club was officially established; becoming a support for young people with will and determination to get rich on their homeland.

Comrade Nguyen Duc Luong - Secretary of Do Luong District Youth Union shared: "Although some results have been achieved, the activities of the Club have not been able to meet the needs of supporting the career development of the majority of young people in the area. One of the reasons is due to limited funding, while the exploitation of social resources faces many difficulties".

"Fireworks" for youth

Sharing about the difficulties in the process of starting a business for young people, comrade Pham Tuan Vinh - Secretary of Nghe An Provincial Youth Union said: "For young people in the country in general and Nghe An youth in particular, creating an opportunity to start a business is very difficult. Perhaps it only stops at individuals who already have a foundation and resources from their families, but for young people in difficult circumstances, rural youth, they may have good startup ideas but realizing those ideas is a difficult problem."

Members of the Anh Son Economic Development Youth Club visited the clean vegetable growing model in Hoa Son commune (Anh Son). Photo: Hoai Thu

The Secretary of Nghe An Provincial Youth Union also said that in recent times, there have been many solutions, forms of implementation, investment, and support for union members and young people such as: propaganda, counseling, career orientation; coordinating with all levels and sectors to organize short-term vocational training, training and technical transfer for young people; building models of applying science and technology in production, promoting the effectiveness of youth volunteer team models; supporting loan sources from the National Employment Fund with a capital of more than 4.2 billion VND, the Youth Entrepreneurship Support Fund with 1.7 billion VND, loan sources from the Social Policy Bank with 844 billion VND,... However, compared to the large youth force in the area, that is only considered an encouragement and motivation, but has not become a solid foundation for young people to start a business.

In that situation, in December 2016, Nghe An Provincial Youth Union deployed the Project to Support Youth Entrepreneurship for the period 2016 - 2020. In which, there are some key contents such as organizing a competition for ideas, youth startup projects; connecting capital sources, financial institutions, businesses to support capital for youth startups; developing the Provincial Youth Entrepreneurship Support Fund to support ideas, startup projects for youth;... The 3 main target groups that Nghe An Provincial Youth Union targets are students of educational institutions; rural youth with the need to start a business and young entrepreneurs, business owners, production and business establishments of young age who have just registered their business.

“Currently, scale is not equal to speed, experience is not equal to thinking - that is the condition for young people to succeed” - the statement of the Standing Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Le Xuan Dai at the launching ceremony of the program "Nghe An Youth Start-up" is a message, encouraging the youth of the province on the path of economic development. The value of starting a business is not only in financial success but also in activities that contribute to society with humanity and are valuable experiences for the youth themselves.

Nghe An has nearly 1 million young people, accounting for 30% of the province's population. However, according to statistics, the rate of employment and stable employment is only about 60%. The number of unemployed graduates is currently about 20,000 people, while each year, universities, colleges and intermediate schools in the area train from 19,000 to 20,000 students. Given the current situation and needs, solving the employment problem as well as orienting and supporting young people to start a business has become an urgent issue for the entire political system, including the responsibility of the Youth Union at all levels.

Thao Phuong