![Team Ascent — comprising Korea's Jang Ho-jun and Indonesia's Fara Santoso — poses for a photo after winning the Asia-Pacific regional final of the 2026 FedEx/JA International Trade Challenge held in Singapore. [FedEx]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/08/25/news-p.v1.20260825.c2299622ff384ec882541804dd028b61_P1.jpg)
A team of students from South Korea and Indonesia has won the Asia-Pacific regional final of a youth international trade and entrepreneurship competition with an idea to turn discarded industrial packaging into electricity-free heat insulation for factories.
FedEx announced Tuesday that Team Ascent — formed by South Korea's Jang Ho-jun and Indonesia's Fara Santoso — took first place at the 2026 FedEx/JA International Trade Challenge (ITC) Asia-Pacific regional final, held in Singapore in partnership with Junior Achievement (JA).
This year's challenge asked participants to design a product made from waste packaging materials that delivers economic, environmental and social value, and to develop a business strategy for selling it in the Cambodian market. Teams were also required to pair students from different countries or regions, pushing participants to collaborate across cultures while crafting a genuine market-entry strategy — not merely pitch a product concept.
Team Ascent proposed a lightweight heat-insulating material recycled from industrial waste packaging. The solution requires no external power supply and reduces the amount of heat entering a building — a design tailored to Cambodia's hot and humid climate. Judges praised the proposal for its potential to cut energy costs associated with factory cooling, improve working conditions for laborers and reduce packaging waste at the same time.
The two runner-up teams also built their ideas around the problem of waste plastics. One proposed flood-resilient permeable tiles made from discarded flexible plastic packaging that allow water to drain rapidly, while the other presented a modular cooling solution capable of lowering indoor temperatures without any additional power supply.
"Working with a teammate from a different country gave us the chance to think about solutions that could work in a global market," Jang and Santoso said. "It was meaningful to learn how international trade and sustainability connect to solving real business problems."
Now in its 20th year, the ITC drew more than 4,000 students from eight markets — South Korea, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Of those, 48 advanced to the Asia-Pacific regional final in Singapore, where they presented their business plans to a panel of judges drawn from the city-state's entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized enterprise executives.
The ITC is a youth international business education program run jointly by FedEx and JA Asia Pacific. What began as an introduction to the fundamentals of international trade has expanded to combine entrepreneurship education with hands-on business challenges set against real-world market scenarios. More than 54,000 students across the Asia-Pacific region have participated in the program over the past 20 years.
Salil Chari, FedEx's Asia-Pacific president, said the ITC had grown over two decades from an international trade education initiative into a program that builds entrepreneurial thinking, collaboration and problem-solving skills. "The creativity and global awareness that this year's participants demonstrated were truly impressive," he said.
Vivek Kumar, president and CEO of JA Asia Pacific, said the 48 finalists had shown the ability to turn ideas into real business solutions. "The younger generation is shaping the future of trade and entrepreneurship across Asia Pacific," he said.
Winning students will also have the opportunity to visit FedEx operating facilities in their respective markets and interact with company staff, giving them a firsthand look at how logistics, supply chain management and international trade work in practice.
kwater@heraldcorp.com
