China-Quotient Youth Forum 2013
– Senior Minister of State Lee Yi Shyan and Mr Eric Pan, Founder and CEO of Seeed Studio, shared with 400 tertiary students their insights on entrepreneurship and the importance of being bilingual and bicultural in today’s context
Singapore – Some 400 students across various Universities, Polytechnics and Junior Colleges participated in China-Quotient Youth Forum on 9 October held at the National University of Singapore (NUS) University Town Campus. Guest-of-Honour Mr Lee Yi Shyan, Senior Minister of State for Trade, Industry and National Development, and Mr Eric Pan (潘昊), Founder and CEO of Seeed Studio, shared their valuable perspectives on entrepreneurship and the much sort-after bilingual and bicultural edge in an increasingly global economy. This is also the first time Eric has been invited to speak in Singapore.
China-Quotient Youth Forum 2013 is jointly organised by Business China and National University of Singapore’s Office of the Vice President (University and Global Relations) and Department of Chinese Studies. The Forum, with the theme of ‘Create or Integrate? Leveraging on Bilingualism and Biculturalism’, aims to motivate Singaporean youths to capitalise on their multilingual and multicultural heritage for a head start in securing their future. Singapore with her language and cultural affinity with China, had Singaporean youths place at a vantage point as the global economic centre of gravity shifts towards the East.
In his keynote address, Guest-of-Honour SMS Lee Yi Shyan urged the audience of mostly Singaporean youths to arm themselves with highly sought after skillsets like bilingual competency and knowledge of contemporary China, in order to prevail in an increasingly competitive global market place. SMS Lee also expressed his concern whether Singaporean youths continued to further improve themselves upon graduation.
Guest speaker Mr Eric Pan – reported as one of the top 30 successful entrepreneurs under the age of 30 by Forbes China – shared his success story and entrepreneurial track with participants. As one of the pioneers in open source hardware start-ups in China, Eric has been involved in spearheading new initiatives and venturing onto paths never-before traversed. Through his high-tech lenses, the audience was moved to visualize an advance, robust and creative China, no different from their own aspirations. In the lively panel discussion, both SMS Lee and Mr Pan shared much revered vignettes on the pains and gains of becoming an entrepreneur in today’s context and the motivations behind their respective career choices.
Chairman of Business China, Mr Chua Thian Poh, highlighted Business China’s unique value proposition in his opening address. He said, “This Forum is but one of the many platforms that Business China initiates to promote understanding of the Chinese culture, society and language. As China’s society is constantly evolving, it is necessary for us to always keep up-to-date of her developments and its relevance to Singapore. Business China hopes to become the nexus to which corporations and organisations will turn to for China-related expertise.”
In his welcome speech, NUS Associate Professor Peter Pang, Assistant Vice-President (University & Global Relations), remarked that the university is aware of the importance of engaging China and is constantly striving to create opportunities of interaction for its students. Business China’s invitation of Mr Eric Pan as speaker of the China Quotient Youth Forum was a much anticipated opportunity, as it allowed potential young entrepreneurs to interact and personally learn from the esteemed entrepreneur.
The Forum was conducted in both English and Mandarin.
For more information, please contact:
Deng Shiying (Ms)
Associate (Corporate Communications)
Business China
Email: shiying@businesschina.org.sg
Tel: 6213 0412
About Business China
Business China was launched in November 2007 by our Patron, Singapore’s Founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and former Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. We are a platform integrating language, economic and cultural elements. Our mission is to nurture an inclusive bilingual and bicultural group of Singaporeans through extensive use of the Chinese language as the medium of communication, so as to sustain our multicultural heritage, and to develop a cultural and economic bridge linking the world and China.
For more information, visit www.businesschina.org.sg/en.
About China-Quotient Youth Forum
As part of Business China’s efforts to engage youths, the non-profit organisation has been striving towards promoting bilingualism and biculturalism in Singapore by organising forums to encourage Singaporean youths and teenagers to leverage on their multicultural heritage in order to better prepare themselves for global development in the future.
As China is projected to be the world’s largest economy by year 2017, it is imperative that Singaporean youths have the means to effectively engage with China in years to come.
Collaborating with National University of Singapore, Office of the Vice-President (University and Global Relations) and Department of Chinese Studies, China Quotient Youth Forum 2013 will discuss the crossroads of career that youths will eventually face—towards entrepreneurship or scale the corporate ladder. Through the panel discussion, both speakers will share how Singaporean youths can leverage on their unique edge as bilingual bicultural individuals in an increasingly competitive global market place.
About Office of the Vice President (University and Global Relations)
The Office of the Vice President (University & Global Relations) leads the University in its strategic development to become a leading global university through impactful global programmes and strong relations and collaborations with diverse local and global stakeholders. It formulates and oversees the implementation of the University’s global strategies as well as strategic communications within the University and beyond.
About The Department of Chinese Studies
Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, NUS is one of the leading bodies in the world and a major centre in the Southeast Asian region in the fields of Chinese Studies and Chinese Language. The Department offers many multi-disciplinary courses covering Chinese linguistics, Chinese literature, Chinese history, Chinese philosophy and translation. We pride ourselves on our excellence in teaching and research. Our academic faculty specialize in a wide range of research interests and this allows us to apply the best methodologies of East and West. Our graduates are offered career opportunities in education and business sectors, the academia, the translation service industry and the mass media.