Investors are confident in the potential of Vietnam's innovative startup ecosystem, and believe the country will become a big investment market in the region and the world, according to head of the Vietnam representative office of Genesia Ventures, an investment fund of Japan, Hoang Thi Kim Dung.

Head of the Vietnam representative office of Genesia Ventures Hoang Thi Kim Dung
speaks at a workshop on attraction of venture investment capital
for innovative startups (Photo: hoilhpn.org.vn)

According to a report published by Do Ventures - a venture capital fund that focuses on making investments in tech startups in Vietnam and Southeast Asia -  in 2020, Vietnam's innovative startup ecosystem ranked third in Southeast Asia, after Singapore and Indonesia.

Vietnam’s national innovation startup ecosystem is likely to earn a berth in the top 15 emerging ones in the Asia-Pacific region by 2030, the report said.

The Prime Minister in 2016 approved a project to support the national innovative startup ecosystem through 2025 under Decision No. 844/ QD-TTg (Project 844), which was designed to promote and support the formation and development of startup projects or startup enterprises and urgently complete the legal system to support innovative startups.

To further promote the development of Vietnam's innovative startup ecosystem in an intensive manner, recently the PM has approved the amending and supplementing of a number of articles in Decision No 844/QD-TTg.

Accordingly, an additional target is to build a system of innovation centres to support research and development (R&D) and creative startups, in tandem with ensuring their successful operation with specific, outstanding and highly competitive mechanisms and policies to make sure that they will be on par with other regionally and internationally leveled ones.

The green light will be given to developing national creative startup support centres in Vietnam’s three largest cites: Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City, and innovative startup centres at ministries, sectors and localities, and organizations which boast potential for  innovation and startup.

Attention will be paid to encouraging more interaction amongst innovative startup centres across the country and innovative startup ecosystems at home and abroad.

Vietnam hopes to establish international cooperation programmes with partners in at least five prestigious innovative startup ecosystems in the world by 2025, and attract more foreign resources to support domestic innovation startups.

According to statistics from the Project 844’s office, there are nearly 100 venture capital funds in Vietnam, including about 20 domestic funds. Each investment fund has different networks and strengths, so startups need to thoroughly research and group potential investors in accordance with their development orientation and goals.