According to the VCCI Mekong Delta Branch, the Mekong Delta Startup Competition 2023 was organized with the desire to seek, foster, and support potential startup projects, innovative ideas, with technology applications, thereby promoting the increase in the number of high-quality businesses, contributing to economic growth in each locality in particular and the Mekong Delta in general.

This year, the competition received 1,511 dossiers from over 4,000 candidates from 12/13 provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta region and other provinces/cities outside the region. The fields participating in the competition included: agriculture, climate change adaptation, food processing, technology applications, business-trade-service solutions, tourism, industrial production, healthcare, and education.

Of these, agriculture had the highest number of participating dossiers with 478 dossiers (accounting for 31.6%); followed by business-trade-service solutions with 327 dossiers (accounting for 21.6%), food processing with 201 dossiers (accounting for 13.3%), technology with 151 dossiers (accounting for 9.99%), energy and climate change adaptation solutions with 101 dossiers (accounting for 6.68%); other fields had 263 dossiers (accounting for 17.4%).

In terms of geographical distribution, the number of dossiers mainly came from 5 provinces: Long An, Ca Mau, Tien Giang, Tra Vinh and Dong Thap with 173 dossiers (accounting for 11.5%), 171 dossiers (accounting for 11.3%), 156 dossiers (accounting for 10.3%), 152 dossiers (accounting for 10.1%), and 150 dossiers (accounting for 9.9%) respectively, while other provinces/cities accounted for 46.9%.

After 3 rounds of the competition, the finals featured the 10 most outstanding projects/ideas competing to find the projects most deserving of the highest awards of the competition.

Through the presentation and answering questions from the judging panel, the Organizing Committee awarded the second prize (this year's competition did not have a first prize) to the project "Production of coconut cookies from natural ingredients without chemicals and artificial colorants" by author Huynh Thi Thy Thy (Tien Giang Province); the third prize went to the project "Vietnamese Crabs - Creating Differences" by the author group Nguyen Viet Bac, Nguyen Thi Tien, Nguyen Xuan Dao, Pham Ngoc Sang (Ca Mau Province); and two projects: "Production of red turkey tail mushroom from agricultural by-products in the Mekong Delta" by author Tran Duc Tuong (Dong Thap Province) and "New Value Chain - Plant-based meat products from jackfruit" by author Cao Thi Cam Nhung (Hau Giang Province) received encouragement prizes of the competition. In addition, the Organizing Committee also awarded special prizes such as Promising Idea; Most Impressive Female Entrepreneur; Community Contribution Model; Most Impressive Student Startup Idea; Best Display Booth, etc.

In addition to the main prizes, the Organizing Committee also awarded training programs, in-depth coaching, free consultation to refine products, free co-working spaces, expert advisory packages during testing and development phases, distribution system introduction, etc. by VCCI Mekong Delta Branch partners. At the same time, they introduced prize-winning projects to larger and higher-level competitions, gradually bringing the projects closer to the goal of increasing the number of young, dynamic, and innovative enterprises, thereby contributing to economic growth in the Mekong Delta.

Within the framework of the competition, the Organizing Committee coordinated with Beacond Fund and BambuUP to organize a specialized seminar on "The Path of Sustainable Growth through Innovation: Seizing Opportunities - Overcoming Challenges for 2024" and a matching session between Investment Funds - Startups - SMEs with the aim of helping competition participants, startups, small and medium enterprises access capital sources from investment funds and investors. This helps solve capital issues as well as identify difficulties, and keep up with new trends, in order to survive and develop sustainably in the coming year.

Organized annually since 2016, over the past 8 years, the competition has affirmed its reputation by attracting over 3,000 dossiers with over 9,000 participants. Through the competition, hundreds of projects have been awarded, consulted, and connected for trade and investment. They have all developed and found their place in the market.