Ten outstanding collectives and individuals were honoured as winners of the 2021 Ho Chi Minh City Innovation and Startup Awards (I-Star 2021) on December 14.

Held annually by the municipal People’s Committee, the fourth edition of the awards attracted 310 entries this year.

Star Global 3D was honoured as the best innovative start-up for its 3D/360 smart interactive web/app licensed by the US.

The website "Go shopping for people", 4.0 vocation orientation app JobWay and community-based traffic congestion warning system UTraffic received the best innovative solution awards.

Meanwhile, press works on innovation and start-ups by Vietnam Television, the newswire of Radio the Voice of Ho Chi Minh City and Vietnam Investment Review also won the awards.

Nguyen Tat Thanh University Innovation Incubator Centre, University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City’s Institute of Innovation and Zone Start-ups Vietnam venture fund were honoured for their active contributions to innovation and start-ups in Vietnam.

The same day, the municipal Department of Science and Technology wrapped up the Week for Ho Chi Minh City Innovation, Startup and Entrepreneurship (WHISE) which was held both online and offline, featuring over 20 events with the participation of 30 units in local start-up ecological system and over 6,000 visitors. As many as 99 start-up projects were introduced on digital platforms.

Director of the municipal Department of Science and Technology Nguyen Viet Dung said despite the COVID-19 pandemic, a record of 1.1 billion USD in adventure investment was poured into 37 start-up deals in the city this year, accounting for 60 percent of capital and 70 percent of deals of the country's total./.