VietNamNet Bridge – Though enjoying many preferences, hi-tech incubators, which aim to nourish “seed companies” to produce powerful enterprises, still cannot bring the desired effects.

In March 2010, Green Age at the HCM City Hi-Tech Zone introduced a new product – the kit which tests for fungal toxin. Currently, the owner of the project is following necessary procedures to set up a business, while it is considering cooperating with a professor from Sydney University to make research and commercialize products.

Help Company in the hi-tech zone has also launched the health e-record and remote healthcare service. The enterprise has completed its business plan and has raised one billion dong worth of capital from investment funds. Some project owners in the hi-tech incubator have been trying to do the marketing and seek partners to find the way to develop the markets.

In 2010, the zone admitted five enterprises to the incubation program, of which three enterprises have shifted from the pre-incubation to the incubation period.

Effects remain modest

Deputy Minister of Science and Technology, Nguyen Van Lang, who is also Head of the Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Zone’s Management Board in Hanoi, said 28 groups of enterprises are operating in the high-technology incubation field at Hoa Lac; including 13 independent and 15 linkage groups, gathering 500 workers. Of the 13 above said groups, five enterprises have succeeded in Vietnam and they are considering reaching out to the world.

In 2006, the incubator belonging to the HCM City Hi-Tech Zone Management Board was established. Two years later, the HCM City Agriculture and Forestry University also set up an incubator operating under its own mode. In January 2010, the HCM City University of Technology opened its incubator with the support from the city’s Department for Science and Technology. At the same time, another incubator opened its doors in HCM City.

In Hanoi, two incubators have been operational, including the one run by the Hanoi University of Technology, and the other at Hoa Lac Hi-tech zone.

However, experts say that the incubators still cannot bring the desired effects.

Dr Pham Ngoc Tuan from the HCM City University of Technology, said in the US, there are about 1200 incubators, while 92 percent of enterprises in the incubators can be established, develop and succeed after five years. Meanwhile, only 21 percent of enterprises outside the incubators can exist after the same duration. Also, in Vietnam, 30 percent of enterprises die before they get one year old, 50 percent die before the age of two, and 80 percent before the age of three.

Big challenges

The experts have pointed out that the biggest challenges for the enterprise incubation are the lack of “good seeds” and the lack of effective supporting mechanisms, especially financial tools such as venture funds. Even if there are “good seeds”, enterprises still have many difficulties in doing marketing, advertising for their products and commercializing their research works.

Lang said that the current policies, especially the ones on financial support, are “not really good”. Though incubators are backed by the Fund on Science and Technology Development, venture funds have not been set up yet.

A bright prospect of hi-tech incubators will come, according to Lang, when a venture fund which uses the state budget, and a development bank which uses the state budget to fund the projects capable to create high value added products, can be established.

Lang thinks that Vietnam should learn experiences from other countries in developing incubators. In the countries, enterprises can enjoy big preferences and tax incentives. Especially, the infrastructure tax is just equal to 1/10 of that applied in other normal industrial zones.

Meanwhile, in Vietnam, many incubators belonging to universities can bring initial successes, but many models still cannot develop due to the limited capability of universities.

Source: TBKTSG