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The great demand for industrial products and services from foreign enterprises in the area is the opportunity for Dong Nai's technology-oriented start-ups to develop.

Favorable conditions for innovation startups

From a national perspective, according to statistics from National Agency for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Development (Ministry of Science and Technology), in 2021, start-up investment in Vietnam has experienced a remarkable growth and reached more than US$1.3 billion. There are currently more than 1,000 organizations capable of supporting start-ups. Many areas that are very potential, attracting strong investment are financial technology, games, education, healthcare, and e-commerce.

Currently, there are more than 200 investment funds operating in Vietnam with more than 100 business promotion organizations and incubators. In addition, the country has over 140 universities and colleges organizing startup activities. Large corporations also participate in start-up support activities, playing the role of financial investors for startups, helping start-ups to expand their markets while sharing experience and providing expert advice in the industry.

According to Mr. Pham Hong Quat, Director of National Agency for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Development, the picture of Vietnam's innovative startups in recent years has been evaluated relatively well by the world with 38,000 startups, many innovative startup promotion activities have been carried out. Large domestic enterprises and corporations participate in supporting start-up activities through forms such as support and financial investment for start-ups; experience sharing, professional advice; connect and expand markets; Leading and motivating entrepreneurship. In the period 2021-2025, according to the general orientation, Vietnam will continue to expand its national start-up network, open innovation platform, exploit the Science and Technology Development Fund from enterprises, and create physical space for innovation management, intellectual property finance.

Dong Nai needs to make efforts to connect resources

At the conference on linking the innovation startup ecosystem in the Southeast region of Vietnam in the series of events of TechFest Dong Nai 2021 just held, experts and speakers shared experiences, ways that Dong Nai Province can connect elements of the startup ecosystem, associated with the general development of the region.

Dr. Nguyen Van Tan, member of the National Innovation and Startup Advisory Council, Head of the Startup Department of Lac Hong University, is particularly interested in investors and the role of investors in developing the innovation startup ecosystem. According to Dr. Nguyen Van Tan, there are a number of issues related to investors that Dong Nai's startup ecosystem needs to pay attention to in order to access investment capital more effectively. Investors determine the value of a start-up project through 5 main factors: the way the project is managed and operated, the project's scale and opportunities, technological products or services, channels of marketing and efficient sales and, ultimately, a less competitive environment. In addition, projects that have the ability to attract a certain number of customers/users, good reputation of startup owners, projects with sample products, level of revenue that can meet expectations, level of supply and demand of the good product or service, good project's distribution channel and finally high industry attractiveness are also prioritized by investors.

“In order to achieve more sustainable results in building a startup ecosystem in Dong Nai Province in particular and the Southeast region in general, authorities should promote the formation of an innovative startup mentoring network in the province to connect the factors of the ecosystem and support them, including support for investment capital for start-up projects" - Dr. Nguyen Van Tan affirmed.