Pakasa Youth Awards winners off to South Korea
Sep 17, 2016
The 10 were selected from a pool of 171 profiles that were published by the New Vision's various media outlets.
CAPTION: Pakasa 2016 winners (L-R): Charles Amaku, Moses Kibirige, Godfrey Munyegera, Martin Kibirige, Muzaphal Sekulima, Grace Nalugwa, Hazel Namuwaya, Denis Kasule, Samuel Isale and Ambrose Angulo with the Ambassador of South Korea to Uganda Park Jong Dae (centre) at the Korean Embassy in Nakasero, Kampala on Friday. The ambassador was flagging off the 10 young entrepreneurs for a two-week business tour of South Korea. Photos by Abbey Ramadhan
Ten young entrepreneurs who won in Vision Group’s Pakasa Youth Awards winners 2016 in June this year leave this evening for a two-week business tour of South Korea.
The Ambassador of South Korea to Uganda Park Jong Dae advising Pakasa 2016 winners to be focused and transform the Country .
The Pakasa Youth Awards 2016 is a countrywide competition organized by Vision Group from October last year to March this year. The trip is part of the prizes they won, the other being sh10m each in business support. The Embassy of South Korea and Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) sponsored the trip.
The 10 were selected from a pool of 171 profiles that were published by the New Vision's various media outlets. Their businesses range from Agro business, health, waste management, education and construction.
Pakasa 2016 winners meeting with Ambassador of South Korea to Uganda Park Jong Dae (centre) at the Korean Embassy in Nakasero, Kampala
Flagging them off at the embassy's offices in Kampala, Park Jong Dae, the South Korean ambassador to Uganda asked the winners to look forward at bettering their communities rather than themselves if they are to effect development in Uganda.
"Be drivers of change," he said. "Be leaders for development."
The entrepreneurs are set to visit Korea and draw lessons from how the country has been able to transform itself from a peasantry to high sophisticated and modern country in a short time.
Park asked the entrepreneurs to be good models for development that others can copy. He also asked them to share what they learn from Korea with others so that there is a multiplier effect on their communities.
Park explained that Korea like the current Uganda had high levels of poverty in the 1960s until they adopted the Saemaul Undong philosophy.
The Saemaul Undong, also known as the New Community Movement, New Village Movement, Saemaul Movement or Saema'eul Movement, was a political initiative launched on April 22, 1970 by South Korean president Park Chung-hee to modernize the rural South Korean economy.
"We were poorer than Uganda," he revealed. "That is why we can relate easily with you," said Park.
Muzaphal Sekuklima, one of the young entrepreneurs who won from Mbarara and deals in waste management, said he was looking at partnerships that would help his business get known.
Hazel Namuwaya, one of the two women representatives, said she was looking to acquire skills on how she would fast expand her fruit processing business.
The entrepreneurs will visit industries in Seoul and others cities.