HCM CITY — Phú Mỹ Hưng Development Corporation and the Lawrence S. Ting Foundation on Saturday awarded direct and indirect scholarships worth a total of VNĐ11.4 billion (US$441,000) to students across Việt Nam.

This is the 24th year the two organisations have awarded Lawrence S. Ting scholarships to students.

This year, the foundation directly awarded 160 scholarships worth VNĐ6.4 billion ($248,000) to students from leading universities nationwide. Recipients were selected for their academic achievements, potential, leadership qualities and commitment to community service.

Since 2025, the Lawrence S. Ting scholarship has covered a student’s tuition fees for one academic year, replacing a fixed grant. The change is intended to better reflect actual education costs and help students develop their abilities and contribute to the community.

The scholarships were funded by domestic and foreign organisations, companies, businesses and individual benefactors.

For indirect scholarships, Phú Mỹ Hưng contributed VNĐ5 billion ($193,000) through the foundation to charitable and scholarship funds. These organisations will select and award scholarships on behalf of the foundation and Phú Mỹ Hưng to local students facing hardship, children with disabilities, orphans, and children from ethnic minority communities, among others.

To date, Phú Mỹ Hưng and the foundation have awarded 126,038 direct and indirect scholarships to students in need, children from ethnic minority communities, children with disabilities and orphans. The scholarships help recipients continue their education and develop their abilities, while supporting the development of talent in Việt Nam.

The foundation also runs other programmes to support the education sector, including donations of microscope-to-computer connection kits, English-language summer camps, and funding for school facilities and equipment.

Its healthcare and community support initiatives include providing wheelchairs and hand-pedalled tricycles; building health stations; supporting doctors’ professional training in Taiwan; sending doctors from higher-level hospitals to remote areas to provide medical examinations, treatment and free medicine; and helping cover the costs of heart, hand and cleft-palate surgeries. The foundation has also distributed medical supplies and consumables donated by the US-based organisation MEDSHARE to healthcare facilities in Việt Nam.

This year, the foundation has expanded its work into entrepreneurship, partnering with the MIT Sloan Southeast Asia Office to organise the MIT $50K Vietnam Startup Competition.

It also supports communities through bridge and charity-house construction, as well as other charitable and social initiatives.

Lawrence S. Ting Foundation was established in November 2005 to continue the community-focused work of the late Lawrence S. Ting, former chairman of the CT&D Group and Phú Mỹ Hưng Development Corporation. — VNS