GEORGE TOWN, April 14 – The Penang Youth Development Corporation (PYDC) has successfully announced and launched the Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge (YEC) National Level 2023 in Penang Youth Space, Jelutong. The launching was attended by YB Soon Lip Chee, Penang State EXCO for Youth and Sports, and Dr. Gwee Sai Ling, General Manager of PYDC. The Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge 2023 (YEC 2023) is a national level competition and also a continuation of PYDC’s annual flagship “Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge” programme.
YEC 2023 is organised by the Penang State Government through the EXCO for Youth and Sports, PYDC, in collaboration with Malay Businessmen and Industrialists Association of Malaysia, Penang Chinese Chamber of Commerce Young Entrepreneur Section, Malaysian Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Persatuan Usahawan Maju Malaysia under the “Youth For Future” initiative to cultivate the youth’s interest in entrepreneurship and encourage youth entrepreneurship.
According to YB Soon Lip Chee, “By providing a platform for knowledge and insights sharing, training, and mentoring opportunities, we hope to inspire the next generation of young entrepreneurs who will create jobs, stimulate economic growth, and positively impact their communities and beyond. I urge all young people to seize this opportunity and join us on this exciting journey. Dr. Gwee Sai Ling also added, “We are very grateful that we have received the greenlight and support from Minister of Education to reach out to all State Education Department in Malaysia for this competition.
Through the Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge, we are able to stimulate the youth’s interest in entrepreneurship while also preparing them through our workshops and consultation sessions. The pitching round will also be a valuable experience for them to truly showcase their business ideas with hopes that their entrepreneurship capacity will be developed”. The objectives of YEC 2023 is to foster and mentoring Youth to the path of entrepreneurship, inspire young entrepreneurs to be more competitive and dynamic with today’s innovation and technology.
Provide a platform for Youth to interact and share innovative business ideas besides developing their entrepreneurial ideas (in any fields), provide opportunity and exposure to youth in gaining practical experience in entrepreneurship and there will be two categories that participants can choose to register which are “High School Category” and “Open Category”. YEC 2023 is a national level competition where participants can register in a group of two to five members with at least one member from Penang.
The registration period will start from 23 March 2023 to 7 May 2023. Throughout YEC 2023, registered participants may join the preparatory workshops within the programme that are designed to help the participants in preparing a well-rounded business plan that will be submitted for YEC 2023. The top 10 business plans will be selected as the Top 10 Finalists and the selected teams will have consultation sessions to prepare them for the final round. There will also be the “Youth Entrepreneurs Forum” to inspire our participants to embrace youth entrepreneurship before the finals.
The final round will then take place where the Top 10 Finalists will be pitching their business ideas as the best. After the final round, there will also be an incubator and accelerator programme to further develop the business ideas by the winners. A prize pool of up to RM11,000.00 in the High School Category and RM25,000.00 in the Open Category are up for grabs.
The workshops and seminar will be covered by industrial players that have the expertise in the area and including the topics of Importance of Executive Summary, Product/Service and Business Model, Situation Analysis, Marketing Tools, Operation Strategy, Finance & Funding and MBPP Business Licensing Talk and these will be covered before the submission deadline.
