The Ministry of Finance Malaysia today, officially launched the 1ASEAN Entrepreneurship Summit (1AES) 2015, a 7-days site entrepreneurial event beginning 16 to 22 November 2015, carrying the theme ‘Futurising ASEAN Entrepreneurs’. The launch took place at the heart of the city, Jalan Kia Peng, Kuala Lumpur and was officiated by Minister of Finance II, Dato’ Seri Ahmad Husni Mohamad Hanadzlah. Also present to behold the notable event were participants and delegates from all 10 ASEAN countries and 81 other countries.
The main objective of 1AES was intended to bring together entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs from the ASEAN region in the substrate that will provide them with the skills, abilities, business networks, access to the various needs of entrepreneurs including funding, mentoring and access to new markets.
It was the hope of the organizers that this effort can transform entrepreneurs towards high impact and transformational entrepreneurship, emphasizing effective use of technology, creative branding strategies, innovative business models, descriptive products and collaborative work. 1AES 2015 featured more than 40 speakers from local, regional and global entrepreneurial ecosystem.
1AES 2015 aims to inspire and promote ideas by sharing the learnings of successful entrepreneurs and industry experts with young entrepreneurs. At the same time, motivating youth to think big and leverage on the ASEAN community to capture the global market. Apart from forums, dialogues and master classes which are offered throughout the week, there are other activities in store for the entrepreneurs including hackathon, bootcamp, networking, pitch & demo day, business matching and entrepreneurial festivals.
Adapting the Satellite Programs concept, the programs were divided into 9 different clusters critical to ASEAN Entrepreneurship Community and ASEAN economy. Each one was filled with a variety of exciting programmes that specifically catered to the needs of entrepreneurs at every level. The clusters were Start Up Culture, Funding, Social Enterprise, Marketing/Entrepreneurial, Hackathon, Fashion and Creative Arts, Bio and F&B Technologies, Innovation/Technology and Policy.
According to YBhg. Tan Sri Dr. Mohd Irwan Serigar Bin Abdullah, the Secretary General of Treasury, “We have been receiving an overwhelming response from both local and ASEAN entrepreneurs since the 1AES kicked off in March, early this year. We, here at 1AES strive to provide knowledge, inspiration, motivation and ideas as well as networking platform within this 1 week period,”
“We are grateful for the support from the partners and panel of speakers and hope to get similar, if not, more participation and support next time,” added Irwan.
The event was initiated by the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and National Blue Ocean Strategy (NBOS). This week-long event was attended by thousands of entrepreneurs, ecosystem builders, connectors, facilitating agencies and public & private sectors to engage in dialogue, explore opportunities, strike business deals, form partnerships, collaborate and be accelerated. Event partners included Maybank, Malaysia Design Development Centre (DDEC), Microsoft, Telekom Malaysia along with other 64 program, facilitating and enabling partners.
