94 university students from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland entered the 6th year of the Vision 2025 essay competition with their works. This competition is traditionally organised by Penta Investments with the goal of awarding unique thoughts on business and public life issues from young people. This year, for the first time Czech and Slovak students were joined by their Polish counterparts.
Penta will decide on the winner of a financial award of up to EUR 5,000 by the end of September 2009.
“Thanks to the Polish entries, I am pleased to say that we have received the highest number of essays ever. I am looking forward to the inspiring ideas and to meeting personally all winners of this competition,” Jaroslav Haščák, managing partner of Penta Investments said.
The highest number of essays arrived from Slovakia (55), followed by Poland (25) and the Czech Republic (14). The students had three topics options:
- The development of consumer behaviour in Central Europe.
- How will the role of Governments change in the Visegrad Four countries as a result of the financial crisis?
- Real estate development in the future.
The most popular topic was consumers’ behaviour and its development, chosen by 48 participants. The selection jury, formed from Penta representatives, will decide on the winners by the end of September 2009. All winners will be informed via post and named on Penta’s website www.pentainvestments.com.
The essays will be awarded in the following manner:
First place: EUR 5,000
Second place: EUR 3,000
Third place: EUR 1,000
The total number of essays for the previous five years was 309, and 49 authors were awarded. Penta gave away prizes totalling 40,000 EUR.