Dung spoke at the Techfest 2025 press conference on December 3 in Hanoi to announce the Techfest startup festival, themed “nationwide creative startups – new growth engine”. Organized by the Ministry of Science and Technology in coordination with the Hanoi People’s Committee, it will take place at the Hoan Kiem walking street from December 12 to 14.

Leaders of Hanoi and the Ministry of Science and Technology said the festival this year will be held in an open space that allows all walks of life to access the newest technologies and innovative ideas.

All activities will take place at Hoan Kiem Lake walking street, using spaces from cafes and restaurants to the Nhan Dan Newspaper auditorium. 

Dung said that the city will inaugurate the network on December 22 to create a connection space for the startup community. Hanoi will launch a venture capital fund with an initial scale of VND600 billion, excluding contributions from strategic enterprises. The city is also applying a new management approach: any innovation hub of an enterprise, if meeting required conditions, will enjoy preferential mechanisms like public centers, forming a wide network of shared resources.

Regarding human resources, Hanoi is developing a project to produce 1,000 PhDs and 50,000 digital workers. The city has committed to becoming the “first customer” of tech startups by using the budget to purchase research products for commercialization and public service, such as health screening kits in the medical sector.

Truong Viet Dung said that Hanoi has collected about VND635,000 billion in budget revenue. Each year, the city spends VND400–500 billion on science and technology and digital transformation, of which about 95 percent is recurrent expenditure. In the coming time, the budget for this field may increase to several thousand billion.

Solving shortage of deep tech, high-tech startups

Earlier, at a venture capital fund seminar in October, Pham Tuan Hiep, incubation director of BK Holdings, noted that most Vietnamese startups operate in information technology, while there is a lack of high-tech and deep-tech startups such as new materials, cell technology, nano technology. 

At the same time, the number of incubators and investment funds focusing on these areas is also very limited.

This situation has been acknowledged by managers and experts. Pham Hong Quat, director general of the Department of Startups and Technology Enterprises (Ministry of Science and Technology), said universities and research institutions in Vietnam hold a wealth of core technologies, but the biggest barrier is that “we previously had no mechanism to unlock those resources and transfer them out for commercialization.”

Further explaining the mismatch in the domestic startup ecosystem, Tran Anh Tuan pointed out two core reasons: Vietnam’s R&D spending is among the lowest, below 1 percent of GDP, while infrastructure, research centers, and laboratories remain small and fragmented.

To break this “iceberg,” the Government has introduced many breakthrough mechanisms and policies, including transferring all research outcomes to institutes and universities free of charge, serving as a foundation for forming spin-off enterprises based on core technologies.

According to Tuan, Vietnam aims to increase R&D spending during 2026–2030, creating resources for deep research groups such as gene technology and stem cells, thereby generating high-tech products.

Regarding infrastructure, according to the director of the Hanoi Department of Science and Technology, the city will soon establish three international-standard laboratories of very large scale. Importantly, these labs will operate under the “three-party” model: institutes and universities – enterprises – Hanoi.

These laboratories will be responsible for researching and developing new and cutting-edge technologies. Combined with legal frameworks such as Decree 271 on spin-off enterprises, venture capital funds, and science and technology development and innovation funds, the improved mechanisms will nurture and strengthen high-tech ideas, gradually removing long-standing bottlenecks.

Dung said Hanoi places great expectations on the ecosystem of startups and researchers to absorb ideas and connect experts to solve the capital’s issues such as environmental pollution, traffic, and healthcare.

He also affirmed that to achieve the 11 percent growth target committed to the Government, Hanoi “has no other path but to rely on science and technology, digital transformation, and innovation.”

Du Lam