At the World Knowledge Forum taking place from Sept. 14 to 16 in Seoul, Tien, together with Desmond Tay, the CEO of GUUD (Singapore), and Noor Helmi, CEO of IX Telecom (Malaysia), were honored with ASEAN Entrepreneur Award 2021.

This is an annual award launched by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of South Korea and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 2016 to connect and recognize the importance of ASEAN and Korean Entrepreneurs.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, ASEAN Entrepreneur Awards 2021 was held online. The award trophy was delivered to the ambassador of the winners' country in South Korea.

In her speech at the online ceremony, the CEO of IPPG said: "Covid-19 has directly affected my employees, family and friends. During this time, IPPG has been actively supporting the community through IPPG's charity fund. Vietnam has a saying, 'In the midst of difficulty, wisdom emerges.' This is the time for us to restandardize, restructure and pursue a new strategic direction."

Le Hong Thuy Tien, CEO of the Imex Pan Pacific Group (IPPG). Photo by IPPG.

IPPG and its partners have been investing in key projects like world-class financial centers, smart airport cities, integrated resorts, free trade zones and factory outlets. Recently, IPPG established Vietnam's first cargo airline, IPP Air Cargo, to carter to the increased demands of e-commerce and exportation logistics.

As CEO, Tien has contributed to the transformation of IPPG into one of the largest retail enterprises in Vietnam with more than 25,000 employees, 33 subsidiaries, doing business in many fields.

She has initiated many key social activities to empower and enhance professional development in the workplace for Vietnamese women, and has been invited as a speaker to many prestigious conferences in Vietnam and abroad. Tien is the first Vietnamese and Asian woman to be twice invited as speaker in 2018 (Sydney) and 2019 (Basel) to the world summit women's conference forum.

Mai Tuan Viet, first secretary of the Embassy of Socialist Republic of Vietnam
in the Republic of Korea, receives the trophy on behalf of the businesswoman.
Photo by IPPG

Tien has been voted among the typical successful young businesswomen in Vietnam and Asia, placed among the Top 50 most influential women in Vietnam 2018-2019 by Forbes, and won many Vietnamese and international prizes.

World Knowledge Forum is jointly organized by Maekung Media Corporation and ASEAN-Korea Center, an intergovernmental body authorized to promote economic cooperation between the 10 ASEAN member states and Korea.

The event has featured speakers like Bill Gates, cofounder of Microsoft Corporation; Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba Group, Robin Li, CEO of Baidu; Larry Ellison, chairman and CEO of Oracle Corporation; Hillary Clinton, the 67th U.S. Secretary of State; Tony Blair, former U.K. Prime Minister, and Gerhard Schroder, former Chancellor of Germany.

This year's forum has seen the participation of high-ranking executives from 30 of South Korea's largest companies, along with more than 4,000 members of government and business community from around the world.