DOST to launch Phl Startup Challenge

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Science and Technology-Information and Communications Technology Office (DOST-ICTO) will hold a nationwide competition in schools that seeks to find the possible future Filipino Bill Gates of Microsoft or Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook.

In a partnership with the Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA), the DOST ICTO will launch the Philippine Startup Challenge - A National Student Startup Competition 2014 that will go to the different colleges and universities all over the country.

The national competition, the DOST ICTO said, aims to involve academic institutions in the college level from all over the country to search among their most innovative students with strong entrepreneurial instincts .

The contest, the agency said,  was conceptualized together with the local startup community stakeholders and major players in the industry to encourage and inspire students to create innovative and relevant ICT services that may also be viable business ventures. 

The competition will include the conduct of startup and business basic workshops in the different regions to ensure that students and mentors are aware of the mechanics of the startup scene and the competition.

The DOST ICTO said that it recognized that majority of local software startups are born during their early years in college and continue to grow right after graduation as was the case of Mark Zuckerberg when he co-founded  Facebook while in Harvard.

It noted that this was the same trend for all startups all over the world wherein most entrepreneurs of this generation started at a relatively young age.