Waste treatment technology on display at a start-up fair in Nam Định Province. Clearer regulations are needed to ensure the consistency of the legal framework related to innovation and start-up, which should be made into a separate decree. — VNA/VNS Photo Thái Thuần

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam needs a separate decree on innovation and innovative start-ups to improve the legal framework and leverage their development.

Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Hoàng Minh said that the national innovation system and the national creative startup ecosystem have seen significant development in recent years, which helps create a new generation of tech-based enterprises.

However, the legal framework must be improved to promote the development of innovation and start-up entrepreneurship.

He pointed out that there is a lack of consistency.

Currently, there are about 30 terms used to mention creative start-up and innovation, while there is confusion about differentiating innovation and creative start-ups, causing inconsistencies in the understanding, development and implementation of policies, he said.

Currently, the management on innovative start-ups is integrated into the Law on supporting small and medium – sized enterprises while the purposes of innovative start-ups and SMEs are not the same.

Clearer regulations are needed to ensure the consistency of the legal framework related to innovation and start-up, which should be made into a separate decree.

According to Phạm Dũng Nam, Director of the national project on supporting innovation and the start-up ecosystem to 2025, despite maintaining the top 60 ranking of StartupBlink's global start-up ecosystem, Việt Nam dropped four places to 58th out of 100 countries and territories.

Currently, many start-up support units have been founded. Sixty out of 63 provinces and cities have approved plans to implement the project, with around 20 support centres, 84 incubators, and 25 accelerators founded.

More than 200 venture capital firms operate in Việt Nam, nearly 40 of which were domestically invested.

Nam said the start-up ecosystem needs to be linked more closely with enterprises, corporations, research institutions, and universities.

Phạm Hồng Quất, Director of the National Agency for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialisation Development, says reviews of the legal framework on innovation and start-ups must be conducted based on the framework of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development of other international organisations as a basis for developing a new project for the 2026-35 period.

He said it is necessary to promote the participation of the private sector to optimise resources.

The start-up ecosystem in Việt Nam has seen two waves of investment since the issuance of the Law on Enterprises in early 2000s.

The record capital inflow was $1.4 billion in 2021. — VNS