“Why do we embark on a task to accomplish something? Is it for the money? Is it for the better good? If it is for money, it is not worth it because at the end of the day I still prefer my street food regardless of how much I have” (Dr. Kid Parchariyanon, 19 July 2022.)
The United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) has collaborated with institutions from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to deliver a South-South Entrepreneurship Academy training for young people from Asia and Africa since 2016. As the Global South-South Development Expo will take place in September 2022 in Bangkok, UNOSSC and its partners were searching for Thai partners to co-host a side event for the Entrepreneurship Academy. The side-event will bring in past-year winners of the South-South Entrepreneurship Academy business plan competition along with new participants in the latest cohort, to Bangkok and online. Through the good offices of our seconded staff from the Thailand International Cooperation Agency, our search found us at RISE, in the centre of Bangkok City and in the warm hands of its Chief Executive and his team.
The Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of RISE, Dr. Kid Parchariyanon is a medical doctor who left medical practice to lead a private sector enterprise whose objectives resonate with the principles of South-South cooperation, i.e., to lift the region like a high tide lifts all boats in the sea. From its humble beginnings, RISE is now a “Regional Corporate Innovation Powerhouse” with a mission to “lift the GDP of the Southeast Asia Region by 1%”. We discussed with Dr. Parchariyanon how RISE intends to achieve this and how the achievement can be measured. He noted that RISE works closely with leading corporations and government agencies across the region to assist them to become innovative and successful through its “unique corporate innovation consulting, intrapreneur university, venture building services and experiential conferences.”
RISE C0-founder and CEO Dr. Kid Parchariyanon and Mr. Denis Nkala, Regional Coordinator for Asia and the Pacific, UNOSSC
RISE has over 400 private sector partners and 20,000 startups that it works with in 40 countries. Relating and comparing to the aspirations of the South-South Entrepreneurship Academy, the UNOSSC staff learnt that RISE has entrepreneurship training, sponsored by partner organizations, and conducted over a period of three to four months. Some of these partners include the Hong Kong institutions such as Cyberport who have been sponsors of the Entrepreneurship Academy since its inception. Each year about 10,000 executives and talented youth go through the training. The training goes beyond classroom theory, RISE actually takes the prospective entrepreneur to environments where they can identify entrepreneurship opportunities and helps them to incubate those ideas. “Are we always successful? No!” said Dr. Parchariyanon, and further explained that the success figures are nonetheless very encouraging with an 80% success rate of deals signed between startups and corporations.
Pertaining to the measurement of progress towards the 1% GDP growth goal, RISE follows up with the entrepreneurs and measures the increase in revenue resulting from new entrepreneurs, improved core business revenues, new business spin-offs, and revenue generated from potential new ventures.
Our visit showed us that although there is no South-South cooperation in the language of Dr. Parchariyanon’s initiative, the principles of solidarity, mutual gains, learning from each other and solidarity are all building blocks to RISE. Furthermore, four countries in the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) directly contribute resources for the training led by RISE, making this a real South-South initiative. Therefore, pending discussions with the other partners, we invited RISE to participate in the upcoming Global South-South Development Expo in Bangkok during 12 – 14 September 2022. Dr Parchariyanon, on behalf of RISE, accepted the invitation to host the South-South Entrepreneurship Academy side event at their innovation hub and also agreed to deliver a lecture at the event.
For more on RISE visit www.riseaccel.com