Press Release: Singapore Entrepreneurship Awards Attract Record Number of Participants

Singapore, October 10 2008. It was announced today that the Spirit of Enterprise (SOE) Awards will honour more than 43 entrepreneurs from a field of over 144 business owners hoping to drive Singapore’s future in a time of global economic uncertainty. A total of over 48,000 votes were registered for the candidates.

A wide spectrum of business types were named in the list with more representation from technology and consulting firms as compared to last year. This is a trend that Henry Tan, SOE president, interprets as reflecting the future direction of Singapore. “As we shift towards a knowledge-based economy it is essential that innovation is nurtured in the youth as their ideas will be driving the country in 20 years from now. This year the programs we support – ranging from primary school talks to university mentoring schemes – involved almost 4800 local students. We hope that the interaction we have facilitated has imparted some inspiration from the entrepreneur to the student and I like to think that, in a few cases, there may have been a two way flow of ideas”.

The Awards Ceremony is held at the Pan Pacific Hotel Ballroom, the event was graced by Mr Lee Yi Shyan, Minister of State for Trade and Industry as the Guest of Honour. Two other awards were also presented at the ceremony. The Best Student Interviewer Awards went to Mr. Khairul Amin from the Singapore Institute of Management and Ms. Adrian Chia Su Ming from the Nanyang Polytechnic, while the Friends of Enterprise Awards went to ACE and SMU.

The organisation was set up in 2003 to encourage entrepreneurial activity in the youth of Singapore and has since spread to America, Mauritius, Vietnam and China. Recent initiatives include the NUS Start-up program and the Shadow-an-Entrepreneur scheme which provide university students an insight into life at the helm of a growing business. SOE also publishes a book every year and this year’s book is titled THRIVE: Ordinary Enterprises, Extraordinary Entrepreneurs, which uncover the success secrets of 10 previous SOE Honourees and this year’s 144 nominees. The book is available at the book stores and libraries.

About Spirit of Enterprise
Spirit of Enterprise (SOE), an Institute of Public Charter, promotes and advances entrepreneurial spirit in Singapore by honoring local self-reliant entrepreneurs operating small and medium-sized businesses, and serves to inspire Singaporeans, especially the young, to become entrepreneurs by facilitating interaction, communication and knowledge dissemination between students, the entrepreneurs and the general public. Its key programs include Spirit of Enterprise Awards, Student-Entrepreneur Program, and SOE Books on Entrepreneurship distributed free to local university and polytechnic business school courses.
SOE is funded by the private sector and its board of governors which consists of established entrepreneurs, corporate senior management, students, public service and political leaders. For more information, please visit www.soe.org.sg.

About Spirit of Enterprise Awards
The Spirit of Enterprise Awards has been held every year since 2003 and the ceremony will be held on the 10th October 2008 at The Pan Pacific Hotel, Singapore. Guests will include figures from industry, academia and the Minister of State for Trade and Industry Lee Yi Shyan will give a presentation to the entrepreneurs and students present.