Vietnam is laying the groundwork to support the next technology startup “unicorn” as it is developing a strong ecosystem capable of supporting tech businesses, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said in a recent report.
The long-term goal of the Vietnamese Government is to attract organisations, knowledge, entrepreneurs, and individuals who could take part in the creation of successful startups and help the country’s economic development.
One government initiative, Project 844, is aimed at developing up to 600 enterprises by 2025, of which 100 will have successfully raised at least 2 trillion Vietnamese dong (about $85.44 million) collectively. Two projects to support startups, as well as the National Technology Innovation Fund, are backing this initiative.
Last year, the top five startup sectors which received the most funding were fintech, e-commerce, educational technology, health technology, or “healthtech”, and software as a service, the ADB report found.
To overcome insufficient human capital, an obstacle to growth, universities and research institutes in Vietnam are working with provincial authorities and central ministries to establish units to support startups. They are also organizing startup events for students to promote the culture of entrepreneurship among young people, ADB said.
“The Government of Viet Nam recognizes that tech startups are the new engines of growth for the country,” said Aimee Hampel-Milagrosa, one of the report’s lead authors and ADB Economist.
“To facilitate this, it has started to put together key ingredients, such as financial and policy incentives, to create and build the next generation of Vietnamese startup unicorns,” Hampel-Milagrosa noted.