MMU Emerged as Champion in the
MSC Malaysia IHL Business Plan Competition 2007/2008



MMU Team, Hafriz and Adi (right) receiving their trophy and cheque from Mohd. Taib for winning the MSC Malaysia IHL Business Plan Competition 2007/2008 (Business Idea Category) witnessed by Dato’ Badlisham (left)

Putrajaya, 4 March - In its continuous effort to pave the entrepreneurial path and groom its staff and students towards becoming successful entrepreneurs, MMU chalks up another milestone today when 2 of its students bagged the national first prize of the MSC Malaysia IHL Business Plan Competition 2007/2008 for the Business Idea category.

The Awards presentation ceremony which was held at the Marriott Putrajaya was graced by the MDeC CEO, Dato’ Badlisham Ghazali and the KSU of the Ministry of Higher Education.

This event, which was attended by the panel of judges, sponsors of the competition such as Telekom Malaysia Berhad, officials from the respective IHLs and the participating teams saw an increase in the entrepreneurial awareness and spirit amongst the IHLs within the nation. According to En Meor, Head of MDeC’s Unipreneur Development Program, 31 IHLs took part in the competition this year, which was an increase of 20% compared to the participation last year. According to En Meor, this shows that IHLs are supporting entrepreneurial initiatives and driving up the entrepreneurial awareness within their own universities/colleges. ‘The availability of government funds such as MDeC Technopreneur Pre Seed fund, Cradle Investment Program (CIP) and u-CIP from MAVCAP, Technofund, Innofund & e-Content funds from MOSTI, Networked Content Development Grant (NCDG) from MCMC, SMIDEC Matching Fund, etc. also help to spur the growth of entrepreneurship within the country’, he added.

 The national finals, which was held at the MDeC Head office in Cyberjaya yesterday, witnessed 10 teams sweating through the presentation round and surviving the grueling Q&A interrogative session by an elite panel of judges comprising of selected officials from MDeC, SME Bank, Cradle and iPerintis. Among the top 10 selected teams battling for supremacy included teams from Univerisiti Utara Malaysia (UUM), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP), International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia(UTHM), Sunway University College and Nottingham University.

MMU team Ideas.Connection, led by 2 Faculty of Management Bachelor of E-Commerce students emerged as the national winner in the Business Idea category. Hafriz Zulpakar and Adi Azfar Mohd Nor were thrilled when the judges announced that they won the first prize which entitled them to RM3,000.00 cash money; RM3,000.00 voucher and trophies for each of them. Their idea which is called BosaBona.com utilizes a new era of advertising in blogosphere where advertisers and bloggers met virtually, mutually taking advantage of blogosphere and the internet to advertise.

According to Hafriz, the team will also be attending the MSC Malaysia’s Technopreneur Pre-Seed Fund Programme workshop organized by MDeC, which is the continuity program for those winning in the MSC IHL Business Plan/Idea Competition.

“What started off as our E-Commerce project for class has turned out to be so much better than we expected and gave us an entrepreneurial idea that we can really pursue in real life. Thanks a million to all our lecturers and the MMU staff who has been working with us on this project. The effort put in the BosaBona.com project in the last 6 months was definitely worth it, and we will use the cash prize money to start it off. We will also be applying for the MMU startups incubation facilities under the Centre for Commercialisation and Technopreneur Development Unit (CCTD) for the startup office space and other business facilities in MMU. I’m glad that I’m studying in MMU as we have all these entrepreneurial facilities that other universities do not have”, he added.