High startup failure rates 

Despite being widely praised by the media as a dynamic country with a large young population and strong innovative spirit, Vietnam is still facing a persistent paradox: startup failure rates exceed 70 percent.

This is not merely the failure of individuals, but a sign of structural problems within the national ecosystem.

For many years, the prevailing startup support models in Vietnam have focused on coworking spaces, training programs, networking events, incubators, and competitions.

However, most of these models create more “activity” than “value,” lacking the foundation to turn ideas into products and products into revenue.

Startups lack real problems to solve, businesses lack mechanisms to place orders, and the market lacks patience for products still in development.

The problem, therefore, is not a lack of talent among young people, but the absence of a truly effective innovation operating system.

In this context, the emergence of the next-generation Innovation Center 4.0 model, CT Innovation Hub 4.0 developed by CT Group, has attracted attention due to its entirely different approach: not building “spaces,” but building a “creative economic system,” where all activities, from ideas to commercialization, are directly tied to market demand and supported by core technologies such as Web3, Blockchain, and AI.

This is no longer a startup support model, but an operation model of the knowledge-based economy, where innovation becomes a real economic sector.

Technology as engine, the market as benchmark

Globally, successful innovation ecosystems often begin not with ideas, but with real needs. Finland has demonstrated this by allowing private innovation centers to directly receive problems from enterprises and incorporate them into training and research programs to generate highly applicable solutions.

Israel, often called the “startup nation,” goes further with the “Fund of Funds” model, where the Government underwrites risk, enterprises define demands, and universities solve the problems. The result is shorter technology commercialization cycles, higher economic efficiency, and enhanced national competitiveness.

CT Innovation Hub 4.0 inherits the spirit of these models and adapts them to Vietnam’s conditions. Its operating structure revolves around a simple formula: solving real problems, creating real value, generating real profits.

Three core technologies serve as the system’s engines. Web3 ensures transparent decentralization, records contributions, and enables fair value distribution. Blockchain protects intellectual property and the entire commercialization chain. AI optimizes research speed, simulates user behavior, and significantly reduces testing costs.

Together, these technologies transform a traditionally intuitive creative process into a value chain that is predictable, measurable, and profitable.

This model not only benefits startups but also delivers immediate value to enterprises. As R&D costs rise and digital transformation becomes mandatory, many Vietnamese enterprises, especially SMEs, lack the resources to build professional research departments. CT Innovation Hub 4.0 acts as a “shared R&D center,” where enterprises can place problems, receive rapid solutions, and pay significantly lower costs than developing them internally.

This opens opportunities to enhance productivity and competitiveness for hundreds of thousands of enterprises nationwide.

For society, the model carries strategic significance. A self-operating, profitable innovation infrastructure will drive knowledge-based economic growth, form a generation of internationally capable startups, and reduce reliance on the state budget. When franchised to multiple localities, the system can create a nationwide innovation network where knowledge and value flow continuously.

HCMC as an ideal environment for innovation models

CT Innovation Hub 4.0 model has been implemented in practice at No20 Truong Dinh Street (HCMC) and is preparing to expand through franchising.

Hanoi has become the first franchise customer, showing that the model is not merely theoretical but capable of operating as an economic model. Several domestic and international organizations are also exploring implementation in their regions.

Notably, the model was highly regarded at the event “City Leaders Meet the Science, Technology, and Startup Innovation Community” held on December 9, when HCMC leaders raised a major question: how can HCMC become a startup and innovation hub, where should it start, what should be prioritized, and where are the resources? 

CT Innovation Hub 4.0 was seen as a viable answer because it embodies the qualities HCMC needs: practicality, immediate value creation, strong core technologies, and a self-operating, profitable mechanism.

With the largest economic scale in the country, a diverse enterprise system, strong demand for digital transformation, and an abundant young workforce, HCMC is an ideal environment for the model to maximize its impact.

Thai Khang