The winner was named as Saing Sarareaksmey who presented on http://www.healthogo.life, while the second prize winner was Ngorn Moi who presented about Fast Pay Cambodia (E-payments) and the third place getter was Vinodh Gopal, who delivered a presentation on electrifying rural Myanmar.

The organisers chose twelve participants from Laos, Cambodia and Thailand to compete in the contest, selecting four from each country.

The objectives of the contest were to strengthen educational institutes’ networks in the region, particularly among Cambodia, Laos and Thailand and to create viable entrepreneurs in the three countries in the era of the Asean Economic Community (AEC).

It is a lso considering the possibility of providing some funds or credit to the prize winners in the future.

The contest teams included the presenters, evaluators and leaders from the three countries.

The target audience included policy makers, academia, business persons, graduate students, students and bankers.

The evaluation committee consisted of five members including Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) experts in charge of business plan development lectures, credit evaluators from a bank in Laos, evaluators from Cambodia and Thailand and business development specialists in Laos (Japanese in Laos).

Each business plan contest followed main contents such as corporate philosophy, positioning or differentiation (4Cs, X-Y axis and value), information gathering, analysis (SWOT), strategy and 6W2H and operations.

Each business plan also followed criteria including corporate philosophy (vision, mission and credo), market and competition analyses, management teams (experience of the team, partnerships), products and services and overall attractiveness.

This regional business plan contest was made possible thanks to the continuous efforts of the management team of the LJI in expanding their local business plan contests into this regional one, Vice President of the National University of Laos (NUOL), Assoc Prof Dr Saykhong Saynasine said at the opening of the contest.

The LJI and the NUOL organised various forums and seminars along with an MBA programme, practical business management training programme, Japanese courses programme and mutual understanding promotion programmes.

Over the last few years, the LJI and the NUOL also organised business plan contests locally, Dr Saykhong explained.

He strongly hoped that this contest will contribute to strengthening networks and cooperation among the three countries particularly among the institutions involved in preparing and implementing this event.

“It is also a way for us to get support from the Japanese government, particularly JICA, in fulfilling our common millennium development goals,” he added.