Minister of Science and Technology Huỳnh Thành Đạt said that the start-up ecosystem in Việt Nam was forming and growing rapidly.

Venture capital flow in Việt Nam was rising again after the COVID-19 pandemic, he said, citing statistics that venture capital reached $634 million in 2022 and $413 million in the first six months of this year.

Improving the start-up ecosystem became necessary for Việt Nam, in which centres for innovation and entrepreneurship would play the core role in raising, exploiting, linking, and optimising resources from both the domestic market and abroad, he said.

According to the ministry, spending for research and development (R&D) in Việt Nam remained modest, just 0.5 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), compared to 5.6 per cent in Israel.

Many start-up and innovation support programmes had been implemented during the past decades, but there were still a few unicorn start-ups valued at $1 billion.

Currently, many start-up support establishments have been founded across the country, both publicly and privately invested, and their operation models were diverse, he added. Support centres were being founded in around 20 localities with nearly 100 incubators and organisations.

Several international start-up support organisations also opened branches in Việt Nam such as Block71 of Singapore in HCM City, Đà Nẵng – Seoul innovation start-up space, K-Startup of the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency (KOSME), which was opening in Hà Nội.

"Overall, the operation of start-up support centres is still fragmented," he said.

It was necessary to issue a detailed financial mechanism for start-up support centres to ensure a synchronised operation of their support policies, Nguyễn Việt Long, Director of Bình Dương Province Department of Science and Technology, said.

According to Lê Đức Viên, Director of Đà Nẵng Department of Science and Technology, Việt Nam needed to develop a national start-up support centre, along with an adequate legal mechanism, appropriate preferential policies, and qualified human resources to lead others.

The national centre should be a public agency and operate for non-profit.

"Currently, Việt Nam has not had any policies which were strong enough to promote the breakthrough development for start-up and innovation," Viên said.

Nguyễn Việt Dũng, Director of HCM City Department of Science and Technology, said that start-up and innovation centres should also provide other public services related to infrastructure, working space, equipment, and training space. Besides, these centres should be allowed to use financial resources collected from leasing public assets and providing services to invest in start-ups. — VNS