Ho Chi Minh City and creative startups

In recent years, creative startups have become widely known and are always a topic that attracts the community. Among them, Ho Chi Minh City is considered the cradle of Vietnamese creative startups, with many exciting activities, a series of successful capital raising units, great value and rapid growth.

There are many concepts related to startups. According to the Law on Support for Small and Medium Enterprises (2017), "Innovative startup small and medium enterprises are small and medium enterprises established to implement ideas on the basis of exploiting intellectual property, technology, new business models and capable of rapid growth". Mr. Bui The Duy (Deputy Minister of Science and Technology) said that a startup must be based on a new technology or create a new business form, build a new market segment, meaning it must create a difference not only in the country but with all businesses in the world. With Dr. Tạ Thị Bích Ngọc (University of Social Sciences and Humanities) and MSc. Nguyễn Quốc Anh (Innovation Academy - National University of Ireland), start up is the process of starting a business based on innovative ideas; thereby creating new products, services, processes, and business models that have outstanding differences and superiority compared to existing products, services, and processes; create new values for individuals and communities.

Although there are many different ways of expressing it, in general, creative entrepreneurship is the process of innovating and differentiating products, services, processes, business models, etc. to create new value for society.

(Source Jobsgo)

Innovative startup activities in our country in recent years have been very exciting and have reaped many initial results. According to the Australian Government's Trade and Investment agency (Austrade), Vietnam currently ranks third in Southeast Asia in terms of the number of startups; ranked 5th in the 2022 National Creative Startup Ecosystem Ranking. To date, Vietnam has about 3,000 startups, of which about 50% are at Ho Chi Minh City, focusing on the fields of: IT (41.1%), technology applied agriculture (20.13%), educational technology (16.11%), IoT (9.4%), food processing (6.71%), travel (3.36%) and financial technology (0.67%).

Possessing quality and creative human resources has helped Vietnam become an attractive destination for venture capital investors. According to Mr. Hoang Cong Doan (Chairman of Vietnam Investment and Startup Club), in 2019, capital poured into Vietnamese startups was about 874 million USD. By 2020, due to the global outbreak of Covid-19, this amount of capital was only over 300 million USD, but by 2021 this capital source had increased to a record, up to 1.4 billion USD.

The period 2019-2021 is also a period of rapid growth for some famous startups such as Loship (200%), FoodHub (300%) and TikiNGON (2,000%), when catching up with people's online shopping trend during the pandemic. These startups are successful in providing transportation, purchasing services and connecting buyers with clean food sellers. This year, Vietnam also witnessed the rise of two technology unicorns, valued at over 3 billion USD (Sky Mavis) and over 2 billion USD (Momo), according to a report by the Venture Capital Fund (DoVenture) and the National Innovation Centre (NIC).

However, besides the startups that make spectacular breakthroughs and reach new heights, there are also many large-scale startups that cannot overcome barriers in the startup process, due to many macro or micro factors. Prozy is an example. This start up (TOP 10 giant start ups in Vietnam, according to KPMG & HSBC) just closed on September 12, due to ineffective business in the context of being affected by Covid-19, political instability between Russia and Ukraine and not being able to raise capital since the beginning of this year,... It can be seen that, besides human resources, capital is an extremely important factor to ensure the maintenance and development of start ups.

Speaking of creative startup support, it is impossible not to mention the contributions of scientists.

To advise on the City's startup support policies and guidelines, since 2018, Associate Professor Dr. Tran Hoang Ngan (Ho Chi Minh City Staff Academy) has researched the current status of start-ups and the startup ecosystem, startup support policies at Ho Chi Minh City and the impact of start-ups on the economy, society and environment. school. Recommendations related to startup support policies (strengthening the legal corridor, initial financial support policies, building a system of criteria for evaluating innovative startups, establishing an agency to coordinate creative startup activities) were also given by MSc. Hồ Thủy Tiên (Ho Chi Minh City Research and Development Institute) proposed to the City and Government in 2019, in the hope of turning Ho Chi Minh City into “Startup City”. Also aiming to "standardize" in the field of creative startups, in 2021, MSc. Huỳnh Kim Tước (Centre for Application and Advancement of Science and Technology Ho Chi Minh City) has proposed to approve and promulgate a set of startup incubator standards to concretize startup and innovation policies, aiming to build a startup incubator model according to international standards,...

From the perspective of supporting young people to participate in creative entrepreneurial activities, research on factors affecting entrepreneurial intentions of MSc students. Nguyễn Thị Bích Liên (Faculty of Business Administration, Nguyen Tat Thanh University) in 2020, identified 5 important factors affecting students' entrepreneurial intentions (entrepreneurship education; capital sources; personality traits; perceived feasibility; subjective standards). Also in this year, a group of authors led by Associate Professor. Dr. Pham Dinh Anh Khoi (Ho Chi Minh City Polytechnic University) also successfully built a startup training curriculum according to international standards (including theoretical and practical parts).

The research results of scientists have contributed to shaping many programmes and solutions, a rich "playground" to promote the formation and development of startups at Ho Chi Minh City.

Week of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (WHISE) is an example. Taking place around the end of October every year, WHISE is organised to create a space for science and technology exchange and creative startups for young people, businesses and investors. This is the biggest event of the year in the field of innovation, science and technology and startups of the City. Recently, WHISE 2022 includes a series of 42 events from October 8-14. Among them, "Innovation and Digital Transformation Exhibition" taking place on October 13-14 is the highlight of WHISE 2022, when at the same time a series of outstanding events of the startup ecosystem explode.

Ho Chi Minh City Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award (I-Star) is an annual award, aiming to spread the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship, contributing to creating new breakthroughs for the City's development. I-Star 2022 has just honoured and awarded 4 groups of subjects: startups and innovative businesses (star up); innovative solutions; media works about innovation and entrepreneurship; individuals, startup and innovation organisations that make positive contributions to the community.

IoT Startup is an annual competition organised by the High-Tech Business Incubator (SHTP-IC) to promote the entrepreneurial spirit and passion for innovation in the IoT field of young people and the Vietnamese startup community, at the same time, support the development, incubation and formation of startups in the field of IoT, aiming to build a sustainable IoT startup ecosystem.

To support startups in terms of operating capital, many funding sources have been prepared by the City. For example, the Development and Acceleration Support Programme for innovative startup projects (Speed ​​up) of the Department of Science and Technology Ho Chi Minh City, an activity in a series of WHISE programmes has funded hundreds of millions, even billions of dong to create conditions for startups to expand domestic and international markets. During the 2016-2020 period, the programme supported 50 startups with a budget of more than 33 billion VND, of which some startups increased revenue or increased their valuation by 2-10 times. Ho Chi Minh City Youth Startup Support Fund is another example. During the period 2017 to June 2022, the Fund has supported more than 570 projects, with a total cost of 202.4 billion VND.

The diverse activities of Ho Chi Minh City have contributed to promoting the continuous development of the domestic creative startup movement, creating more and more capable startups. According to Mr. Nguyen Viet Dung (Director of Department of Science and Technology Ho Chi Minh City), the quality of startups in the City is currently highly appreciated by international investors, many startups have potential operating models, exploiting new technological elements. These are favourable conditions for startups to attract investment capital for development. As of October 2022, of the total successful attraction of about 800 million USD in venture capital nationwide, more than 600 million USD (75%) has been poured into startup activities in the City.

It can be said that the elements of the creative startup ecosystem in the City have provided practical support for the formation and sustainable development of startups in the area. According to a report by the Department of Science and Technology Ho Chi Minh City, the City currently has 34 startup support organisations, including 24 startup incubators and accelerators and 10 co-working spaces with a total area of ​​about 30,000 m2. Recently, the City started construction of the Ho Chi Minh City Innovation Startup Centre, at 123 Truong Dinh, District 3. This is a place that provides facilities services for startups and innovation activities. At the same time, it is also a centre for creative work, developing startup ideas, accessing the latest policies on investment and entrepreneurship, a nucleus connecting universities, research institutes, production facilities, especially businesses targeting 4.0 technology.

In 2022, despite facing more difficulties due to the post-Covid-19 impact and economic and political instability in the world, Vietnamese startups are still welcomed by the world and are full of development potential. With increasingly practical support through the City's guidelines, policies, as well as programmes and solutions to promote diverse and practical creative startups, startups at Ho Chi Minh City will have many opportunities to develop stronger and more sustainably.

Minh Thu

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Main References

[1] Tran Hoang Ngan. Complete policies to support startups in Ho Chi Minh City. [2] Hồ Thủy Tiên. Solution to turn Ho Chi Minh City into a Startup City. [3] Proceedings of the international scientific conference on national innovation startups https://hvtc.edu.vn/Portals/28/Ky%20yeu%20hoi%20thao%20cuoi%20in-final.pdf [4] Nic & Do Venture. Innovation report 2021/ https://nic.gov.vn/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Bao-cao-DMST-va-Dau-tu-Cong-nghe-2021.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3D9cIn_w6nZKTrDjfBaHWJ5141CnumEdrBNm-_VLtvw2l7yS2SKrIb_XU [5] Ha The An. Ho Chi Minh City is the "home" of nearly 50% of startups in Vietnam. https://dost.hochiminhcity.gov.vn/tin-tuc-khcn/tphcm-la-nha-cu-gan-50-cong-ty-khoi-nghiep-o-viet-nam/ [6] Hong Phan. Developing innovative startups. https://mof.gov.vn/webcenter/portal/vclvcstc/pages_r/l/chi-tiet-tin?dDocName=MOFUCM187734

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Source: CESTI – Centre for Science & Technology Information and Statistics Ho Chi Minh City. Original article: https://thongke.cesti.gov.vn/an-pham-thong-ke/thong-tin-chuyen-de-khoa-hoc-cong-listen-va-doi -new-sang-tao/1065-thanh-pho-ho-chi-minh-and-khoi-nghiep-sang-tao