The launch event was organised in Hanoi in collaboration with the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) National Agency for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Development, and the Open Innovation and Technopreneur Institute

The DPA is the first pan-Asia Pacific (APAC) alliance built by home-grown companies to promote the democratisation of digital technologies across all sectors.

The Vietnam Chapter aims to connect digital SMEs with policymakers to strengthen Vietnam's digital ecosystem and support the growth of dynamic, innovative, and resilient digital SMEs that can expand across the region.

The launch event comprised two panel sessions involving DPA members from various countries including Kinobi (Singapore), EngageRocket (Indonesia), and Quickwork (India) as well as government representatives, trade organisation representatives and international MNCs.

Benjamin Wong, founder and CEO at Kinobi said, “DPA's work in Vietnam is more vital than ever given the massive potential of Vietnamese SMEs, and the strong emphasis placed on the role of digital SMEs and startups in enabling Vietnam's digital economy by the Vietnamese government."

"As more Vietnamese companies achieve their potential, the DPA can seize the opportunity to support their expansion and, in so doing, do its part in growing the Vietnamese digital economy."

Pham Hong Quat, director-general of NATEC said, “Open innovation is currently being strongly developed by countries in ASEAN. In this context, Vietnamese SMEs who want to reach out to the international market to raise capital and develop the market are forced to open their minds to connect with each other."

Besides that, we must build the ecosystem from the scope of a university, a business, a corporation, an incubator to a city, a country. Hopefully, experts from many countries will come up with initiatives for Vietnam in the new period of cooperation and competition.”

"At the launch, DPA shared a Policy Recommendations paper with government representatives. The paper outlines best practices for its priority policy pillars including Digital Trust, Fairness, Emerging Technology, Free Trade, and Sustainability. This affirms DPA's support for the government to achieve its aims for the digital economy.

The DPA recommends a consultative and collaborative approach between government and industry players and strengthening key business enablers like digital infrastructure investments, risk-based policy development, and access to multinational digital service providers to support digital SMB expansion regionally.

It also recommends policymakers to develop standardised frameworks that consider access to new and innovative technologies, such as AI; enable SMB participation in government procurement through a digital marketplace model; and promote fairness principles in software procurement.

DPA members will be able to discuss and align policy advocacy interests surrounding key issues, conduct knowledge sharing, and strengthen national and regional networking.

The coalition is currently looking for more like-minded Vietnamese and APAC companies in the digital space that recognise the importance of growing the digital economy for both local and shared prosperity.