Promote sustainable consumption and production
Ecothon 2022 in Cambodia
All participants after the award ceremony
HSF
Ecothon 2022 in Cambodia was hosted by the Ministry of SMEs and start-ups of the Republic of Korea (MSS), the Ministry of Industry, Science, Technology and Innovation of Cambodia (MISTI) and the Ministry of Economy and Finance of Cambodia in cooperation with the Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSF), ASEM SMEs Eco-Innovation Center (ASEIC) and Khmer Enterprise. The 36 hours-boot camp combined with a business model competition aimed at setting incentives for young Cambodian entrepreneurs to follow their ideas of sustainable business models and to promote the start-up scene in Cambodia.
Ten start-up teams participated in the event which lasted a total of three days. The first two days were characterized by the presentation of the ideas of the different teams and lectures about business principles by experts and coaches. Topics of these lectures were lifecycle thinking, market and customer analysis, development of business solutions, MVP prototyping, building a profit model and the measurement of sustainable impact. Besides that, group coaching and mentoring sessions were provided to the teams. An elevator pitching on the second day gave the team members the chance to state briefly what makes their idea unique.
Award winners and members of Somnol
HSF
On 7th October the final pitch took place. The first prize went to Somnol. The project team acts in the field of agriculture and wants to reduce food waste by transforming it to chicken feed with the mission of improving the quality standard of chicken feed and therefore improving the quality of chicken meat at the same time and as well as a rise of the income of farmers. This targets four Sustainable Development Goals at the same time (SDG 3, 8, 12 and 13).
The project team of Metkaksekor has received the second prize with being a go-to marketing tool promoting the adoption of green technologies for farmers through linking with green and innovative agribusiness companies. Reakossa Arts Anon Cambodia won the third prize. The start-up supports a sustainable handicraft production by using a technique derived from the traditional Khmer style to tackle the environmental consequences of using wood and stone for handicraft like sculptures. The special prize went to AquaTech. The team designed an environmentally friendly smart device for data provision for aquafarming to assist farmers in increasing their yield.
HSF-Resident Representative Michael Siegner and HSF-Program Manager Nguyen Thu Trang with the Reakossa Arts Anon Cambodia-Team
HSF
The prizes were awarded by HSF-Resident Representative Michael Siegner, Chris Lee from ASEIC and the Under Sercretary of State (MISTI) Ratha CHEA.
All winners are invited to the follow-up program of Ecothon.