Vietnam lays the foundation for creating Asia’s next business unicorns

Asia-Pacific’s next tech “unicorns” could emerge from Vietnam, as the groundwork to build a strong ecosystem capable of supporting these companies is well advanced, according to a new report from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

The Government of Vietnam’s long-term goal for the sector is to attract knowledge, organizations, individuals and entrepreneurs to contribute to economic development and create successful new businesses.

The ADB report, Vietnam’s Ecosystem for Technology Startups, analyzes the progress of start-ups in the Southeast Asian country.

An example of government support is Project 844, which aims to develop up to 600 companies by 2025, 100 of which will have collectively raised at least VNĐ2 trillion (about $85.44 million).

For this, it has the support of the National Fund for Technological Innovation and two new projects, “Support for students to create companies until 2025” and “Support for emerging women’s companies in 2017-25”.

“The Vietnamese government recognizes that tech start-ups are the country’s new growth engines,” said ADB economist Aimee Hampel-Milagrosa, one of the lead authors of the report. “To facilitate this, he has started to put together the key ingredients, such as financial and political incentives, to create and build the next generation of Vietnamese startup unicorns.”

Vietnam on track to advance its economic reform

In 2021, the top five start-up sectors that received the most funding were financial technology, or “fintech” (26.6%); electronic commerce (20.3%); educational technology, or “edtech” (17.2%); health technology, or «healthtech» (7.8%); and software as a service (6.3%).

An example of government support is Project 844, which aims to develop up to 600 companies by 2025

The report analyzes health technology and agricultural technology, or “agritech”, because they have a great social impact and potential to contribute to a more inclusive and sustainable development.

Although funding is a common obstacle to growth for startups, angel investors and venture capitalists were eager to invest. Another obstacle to growth is insufficient human capital. However, universities and research institutes in Vietnam collaborate with provincial authorities and central ministries to set up start-up support units. They are also organizing student start-up events to promote entrepreneurial culture among young people.

Article republished from the Vietnamese state media VNA as part of an agreement between both parties to share content. Link to original article:https://vietnamnews.vn/Economy/1272517/viet-nam-lays-groundwork-to-build-asias-next-start-up-unicorns.html