Twenty-year-old Mai Nguyen Cong Thuan, a third-year student from the Commerce Faculty of the Da Nang University of Economics, was the only representative of the city and one of 17 Vietnamese youths participating in the recent 2017 APEC Voices of the Future (VOF). 

Thuan (1st right) and other VOF 2017 attendees from APEC’s member countries posing for a group photo during break at the event

As a forum for youths from APEC’s 21 economies, the event took place in the city from 6-11 November.

“It’s a great honour for me to represent Da Nang at VOF 2017 in my hometown”, said the talented young man.

To be eligible to attend this important event, the strong-willed man said that he had made the earnest endeavour to meet the VOF’s very strict requirements. 

In detail, Thuan submitted to the VOF’s organisers 2 short writings on his knowledge of APEC and his strong desire for making devotion towards the success of the event. 

Furthermore, the local student was required to undergo tough interviews in English with representatives from the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union's Central Committee.

During the VOF 2017, Thuan and other attendees actively involved in discussions, action plans, proposing initiatives and valuable solutions, thereby, helping to promote cooperation amongst APEC youths as well as enhancing their engagement in handling development issues of APEC regionally and globally.

As for their proposals for VOF 2017, Thuan and other Vietnamese participants underlined the importance of the APEC’s member economies to establish a joint commission which will be in charge of providing financial aid for those who embark on doing startups.

The outstanding student said that he was very happy and proud of attending VOF 2017 as he had a valuable opportunity to access practical knowledge shared by the region’s leading speakers, and to draw valuable lessons about what he had learned from other attendees. 

Also on the sidelines of this important event, Thuan was very eager to introduce youths from other APEC member economies to the allure of land, people and distinctive cultural values of Da Nang, and those of Viet Nam as a whole, thereby partly helping to promote in-depth cultural exchanges amongst the bloc’s economies.

Most notably, Thuan took the opportunity to introduce the VOF 2017 delegates to the first made-in-Viet Nam multi-purpose jacket-a jacket, sleeping bag and packpack-for off-road trekkers and people in flood-affected areas.  This is a brainchild of Thuan and his friends who are also undergraduates from local territory establishments. 

More details about this product are available at http://baodanang.vn/english/education-science/201711/local-young-man-brings-multi-purpose-jacket-to-apec-2577085/.

Thuan has always been highly respected by his friends and coursemates due to his remarkable academic results.  During the 2015 national senior high school graduation exams, Thuan gained the highest score in the entrance exam for his university.

Thuan and his friends jointly won first prize at the Da Nang Startup Runway 2017 for their jacket, with the award of a 4-week training course at Ireland’s Cork Institute of Technology.

In addition to developing the multi-purpose jacket, Thuan has also developed a tour-guide programme, entitled Da Nang Free Walking Tour, which provides foreign tourists visiting the city with local guides.

His programme aims at creating opportunities for young students to practice their English skills, while promoting the hospitality of Da Nang, and Central Viet Nam as a whole, to visitors.