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| Citi Foundation grants form a significant part of Citi's community investment in Asia Pacifiic. |
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| Citi Vietnam focuses on microfinance, youth education, financial education, community development, and employee volunteerism |
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| Business Presence |
Citi has been in Vietnam since 1993. Today, Citi Vietnam employs 205 employees in branches in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City providing a full range of corporate and investment banking services, and has a nationwide partnership network that covers all 64 provinces in Vietnam.
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| Citizenship History |
| Citi Vietnam has developed long-term relationships with several community partners, including: |
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Operation Smile www.operationsmile.org since 1996 - VND3 billion (US$180,000) and extensive employee volunteer time to transform the lives of approximately 2,000 children with facial deformities in rural Vietnam, and in 2007, to equip the first local Comprehensive Care Centre.
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Save the Children US www.savethechildren.net since 2001 - VND3.3 billion (US$168,000) to enable more than 10,000 women in Thanh Hoa, one of the poorest provinces in Vietnam, to start their own microentreprises.
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American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam and United Way Vietnam www.amchamvietnam.com since 2002 - VND800 million (US$50,000) for scholarships and vocational training placements for more than 2,000 Vietnamese youths, and VND640 million (US$40,000) for two computer centres in Tien Giang and Vinh Long provinces to train young people who have migrated to urban areas and are unemployed.
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Discovering Vietnam's Most Outstanding Microentrepreneurs
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| The microfinance sector in Vietnam is growing rapidly and microentrepreneurs, who are mainly women, are key contributors to local economic growth. However, the sector faces many challenges including low awareness of microfinance as an effective way to reduce poverty. |
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In 2007, the Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards were held in Vietnam for the first time to engage a range of stakeholders including microfinance institutions, policymakers, donors, practitioners and academic organisations, and to widely promote microfinance's role in poverty alleviation in Vietnam.
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To organise the awards, Citi Vietnam partnered with the Microfinance and Development Centre (MDC) and the Vietnam Microfinance Working Group www.microfinance.vn. Over 230 nominations were considered from microfinance clients with a monthly income of less than VND200,000 (US$12.50) in rural areas and VND260,000 (US$16) in urban areas at the time they received their first loan. In addition, 38 nominations were received for credit officers who had worked for at least three years in microfinance, managed at least 300 clients, and contributed significantly to local microfinance institutions (MFIs).
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| After a rigorous review and judging process, 60 microentrepreneurs and 30 credit officers were awarded cash prizes for their outstanding achievements and contributions to their communities, and 10 MFIs received commendations for their excellent work. |
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| One of the winning microentrepreneurs was Tran Thi Hong, 33, from Mai Son district. In 2002, she was widowed and left to care for two small daughters with no family support. Her first business venture rearing chickens failed due to avian flu. Without any income or assets, she was unable to borrow money from a bank and struggled until 2004, when she took out a microloan with the help of a local women's union. Tran Thi Hong's microloan of VND3.2 million (US$200) came from the Mai Son Fund for Promoting the Development of Women in Mountainous Areas. The Fund also provided training courses on farming. By 2007, she had established a successful farm with 1,000 chickens and 150 pigs, employing six staff and making a monthly profit of VND 9.6 million (US$600) selling livestock. |
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| After being selected as a winner of the Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards, Tran Thi Hong reinvested some of her prize money into her |
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Tran Thi Hong from Hat Lot in Mai Son district was one of the winners of the first Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards held in Vietnam in 2007.
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business, and along with five other awardees from her area, she contributed a proportion of her winnings to the Mai Son Fund's community development programme.
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| Nguyen Bich Vuong, MDC's Director, said: "By publicising best practices in microentrepreneurship, these awards inspire the poor to start their own businesses and facilitate the creation of more sustainable microenterprises." |
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In 2008, the Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards will expand its reach to include the northern, central and southern regions so that more microentrepreneurs and MFIs can be included.
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