Caitlin Wiesen, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) resident representative in Vietnam

Vietnam has a very exciting and vibrant start-up eco-system. As one of the fastest growing country in ASEAN region, many things have been done very well.

From UN and UNDP standpoint, we are particularly interested in nurturing start-ups that have social and environmental outcomes to their work. Vietnam can make investment in these areas to show transformational impacts to sustainable development.

The youth is an enormous force of creativity and vitality in the country and can be a driving force to delivering Sustainable Development Goals. We have seen through our Youth Co:Lab that there is an incredible creativity.

We founded a national Youth Co:Lab and a regional Youth Co:Lab. We work together with CitiBank, start-up community, Vietnamese Ministry of Science and Technology and university system, creating a really dynamic platform and important connection.

UNDP has started an accelerator lab which supports skills for innovation and scaling. One of its missions is to work with social and environmental impacts. We will work with this network and connect them with 60 other labs across the world.

Gareth Ward, British Ambassador to Vietnam

There are a lot of British companies interested in investing in technology in Vietnam. At Techfest, we have a British stand with companies including NashTech, an IT company creating thousands of jobs for IT programming, expanding, looking for graduates and young Vietnamese talents; financial service companies including insurance companies like Prudential.

Investment in Vietnamese start-ups is growing very fast. This year, the investment is around US$900 million which is triple what it was last year. There are lots of potentials to grow.

In Vietnam, we have sectors that can expand fast, for instance, financial service technology. Twenty five per cent of population in Vietnam don’t have bank accounts so there are a lot of opportunities.

And also there are opportunities in health and education technology. There are great demands of good quality and products meeting international standards.

Johan Alvin, second secretary, head of trade promotion, economic and political affairs, Embassy of Sweden in Vietnam

We have a lot of Swedish companies present in Vietnam including our biggest corporations and multinational companies which have been in Vietnam in more than 20 years.

We will have more research collaboration between Vietnamese and Swedish universities. More Vietnamese students are going to Sweden to study. And Swedish students also come to study in Vietnam.

We are collaborating with Vietnamese counterparts and authorities to really gear Vietnam to move ahead with science development and economic development as a whole.

Our support for Vietnamese start-ups is driven by companies themselves who partner with small companies through their network.

Kevin Ryan, ASEAN director of Enterprise Ireland, Irish Government Trade and Technology Office

 
We run incubation centres, accelerators, support universities and provide funding and training for start-ups in Ireland. We are here to provide expertise and experience to Vietnamese start-ups.

I’m working with ASEAN Angel Funds to support and provide consultations as much as support and advice as we can to ASEAN and Vietnam.

We are opening a new office in HCM City. We will be providing more support on the ground towards companies. Hopefully, we will work very closely with Vietnamese Government to help with innovation, entrepreneurship and star-up eco-system. — VNS

Hanoi splashes out US$13.5 mln on startup, innovation activities

The Hanoi People’s Committee has recently approved a VND312 billion (US$13.5 million) project to support start-ups and innovation in the capital from 2019-25.

Financial mechanisms urged to support start-ups in Vietnam

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has asked for financial mechanisms to be built to attract investment into start-ups and innovation activities from both the country’s inside and outside resources.