Academy of Finance wins the final round at Vietnam ESG Challenge 2023

The final round of the competition 'Corporate governance towards sustainable development - Vietnam ESG Challenge 2023' took place on the morning of December 2, with a fierce and dramatic competition between 5 excellent teams. The AOF Visionaries team from the Academy of Finance won first prize.

The Vietnam ESG Challenge 2023 is organized by the State Securities Commission (SSC) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) with the aim of inspiring, spreading useful knowledge and the importance of sustainable development to the community and businesses. Especially to the young generation - the future leaders of Vietnam. This is the first official cooperation activity following the extension of the Memorandum of Understanding between the State Securities Commission and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) in October 2023, and this is also a solid premise for the State Securities Commission and ICAEW to coordinate and organize cooperation activities to realize the above goal.

Speaking at the event, Chairwoman of the State Securities Commission Vu Thi Chan Phuong affirmed: Sustainable development has become an urgent need and an inevitable trend in the development process of society.

Officially launched on October 19, Vietnam ESG Challenge 2023 is the first environmental, social and governance (ESG) competition held in Vietnam for students. The competition has received attention and support not only from universities and partner businesses but also from a large number of young people and attracted thousands of candidates from colleges, universities and academies across the country to register to participate. Corporate governance associated with sustainable development has become the goal and inevitable trend of businesses around the world. ESG are important standards for assessing the sustainable performance of businesses and are the key to sustainable development. Speaking at the event, Chairwoman of the State Securities Commission Vu Thi Chan Phuong affirmed: Sustainable development has become an urgent need and an inevitable trend in the development process of society. The sustainable development process requires a harmonious regulation between economic growth, ensuring social security and environmental protection. In Vietnam, sustainable development is one of the issues of concern and calls for joint action. In particular, when the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 841/QD-TTg on the roadmap for implementing Vietnam's sustainable development goals to 2030. Implementing the Government's direction, the State Securities Commission has actively called for the proactive participation of the business community and investors to create a sustainable foundation for green growth and sustainable development through the development of a system of legal documents regulating sustainable finance, improving corporate governance standards and capacity building, raising awareness of both management agencies and market members, investors about green financial instruments and sustainable development. In addition, realizing the importance of good corporate governance to the economy in general and the development and effective stability of the stock market, the State Securities Commission always strives to disseminate knowledge and build a legal framework to create a foundation for the acquisition and application of good practices on corporate governance in Vietnam.

In the Final round, the teams will go through 2 rounds to find the champion of Vietnam ESG Challenge 2023.

Disseminating knowledge about securities and the stock market, training to improve knowledge about the capital market as well as the role and rights of investors in the market are among the top priorities of the State Securities Commission towards the goal of building a green capital market and sustainable development. The Vietnam ESG Challenge 2023 competition was launched and attracted thousands of students from universities and academies to participate, demonstrating the interest of young people in particular and society in general in governance, environmental and social issues. After 2 months, through 2 rounds of competition: Incubation and challenging Growth. The Organizing Committee has selected the 5 best teams representing 5 schools: Foreign Trade University, National Economics University, Banking Academy, Academy of Finance, University of Economics - VNU to compete in the Final Round. Before entering the Final round of the competition, the 5 teams visited, learned about the reality and received training on ESG knowledge at Deloitte Vietnam and PWC Vietnam. The contestants also had a special visit to the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) and were shared a lot of useful information along with training, Q&A, and knowledge exchange on ESG to be ready to conquer the judges in the Sustainability round. In the Final round, the teams went through 2 parts including: The first part was handling situations and debating. The second part was role-playing real situations. attractive and impressive with the championship belonging to the Academy of Finance team. Regarding the competition results, with outstanding performance, the AOF Visionaries team from the Academy of Finance won the first prize - Effective Board of Directors. The second and third prizes respectively went to the BVA Directors team from the Banking Academy and the FTU Cypher team from the Foreign Trade University. The Innovative Board of Directors Award and the Promising Board of Directors Award were respectively awarded to the NEUWave team from the National Economics University and UEB in Action from the University of Economics, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.

PV