Elements such as policies, finance, culture, market, and human resources in the ecosystem have become increasingly connected and supportive in encouraging the spirit of innovative entrepreneurship throughout society, serving as a driving force for economic development.
According to international experts and organisations, the strengths of Vietnam’s innovative startup ecosystem include the involvement and attention of the political system, young and high-quality human resources, an improved business environment, and an increasingly strong international integration and position.
The Ministry of Science and Technology, however, noted that Vietnam’s innovative startup ecosystem is still in its early stages of development, not yet matching the potential and capabilities of the Vietnamese people and their intellect. It has not reached the sustainable development stage and remains incomplete in many aspects compared to other developed ecosystems.
After the phase of formation and building the basic foundation, the innovative startup ecosystem needs to enter a phase of acceleration and deeper integration with the international startup ecosystem. Innovative startups need to demonstrate their role in the nation’s new era by focusing on future technologies and creative products that meet unlimited human needs and create markets without competition.
The upcoming 2024 National Innovation Startup Festival will focus on discussing what roles and missions the ecosystem’s stakeholders need to promote in order to guide the innovative startup ecosystem into a new phase.
According to experts, breakthrough policies are needed along with mechanisms to mobilise public sector resources for investment in innovative startups.
This includes improving regulations related to the distribution of research ownership rights, intellectual property, autonomy of higher education institutions and research facilities, and the rights of research personnel to participate in and manage businesses. These improvements aim to encourage and promote commercialisation activities and the formation of innovative startups from research results and intellectual property.
The government needs to play a leading role or develop policies to attract social resources for investment in shared spaces, technical infrastructure, laboratories, and testing facilities for innovative startups to use.
Additionally, the government needs to attract and coordinate overall resources by building and developing an innovative startup investment capital market, unlocking capital from large corporations and enterprises as well as foreign investment funds; allowing community fundraising and encouraging angel investors; promoting large corporations and enterprises to place orders and invest in innovative startups; supporting innovative startups to develop markets overseas; and implementing policies to attract overseas Vietnamese investment in innovative startups.
The piloting of specific mechanisms and policies to promote the ecosystem is also mentioned by many experts as a solution to create new sustainable changes for the innovative startup ecosystem.
