In a joint effort, the Growth Faculty and the American Association of Singapore hosted “In Conversation with President Barack Obama” with many important international business leaders both in attendance and on stage. The event was an opportunity for the Asian business community to learn from the world's preeminent change-makers and to inspire the leaders of today and tomorrow.
As a company that plays a critical role in the long-term success of many online entrepreneurs, Google was also an important presence at the conference—especially in consideration of its projects in emerging and developing markets (e.g. Viet Nam). Google used this opportunity to highlight one of its most meaningful projects this year, the Google-Dreamship program, and invited one of our most promising program participants, Manh Hoang, as its representative to meet President Obama.
Manh Hoang represents a growing group of young and talented individuals who want to make positive change happen. Whether it’s through their work, education, or environment, they see change as a series of linked events, and they’re the catalyst factor. We couldn’t be more proud of the Vietnamese community.
Viet Nam is a special market. Viet Nam's development, dynamism, and potential are enormous due to its young, hard-working and flexible labor force. In addition, with a 67% rate of Internet penetration, Viet Nam’s connectivity only trails India and Australia. However, it remains one of the riskiest markets in the world.
In 2019, Google determined that Viet Nam’s potential outweighed the risks and decided to partner up with Dreamship to bring select ecommerce businesses to Google’s platform. We’re incredibly excited to share that the program has gone exceedingly well, and Manh Hoang is proof.
While Google and Dreamship’s collaborative efforts created opportunities for sellers, we couldn’t begin to replicate the sheer determination and motivation that it takes to succeed. Manh Hoang is the embodiment of President Obama’s words, "Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. ”