The Government has a major role in incubating enterprises, participants at a seminar in HCM City were told on Thursday.— Photo sggp.org.vn

HCM CITY — The Government has a major role in incubating enterprises, participants at a seminar in HCM City were told on Thursday.

“It is imperative that the Government take part in the initial stage of incubation, organising and calling for donations,” Dr Nguyễn Hải Anh, director of the municipal High-tech Agriculture Enterprise Incubation Centre, seminar organiser, said.

“The initial funding for these incubations could come from the State budget, but in the long run funds should be raised from localities, enterprises, foreign investors, ODA or FDI.”

According to Assoc Prof Dr Mai Thanh Phong of the National University-HCM City’s Polytechnic University, there are many different models for incubation with different targets, standards and operations.

“The public-private partnership model has its advantages. The model is still new in Việt Nam but has become popular all around the world with its proven efficiency.

“A major task of the Government is to develop infrastructure and the legal framework, provide initial financial support and support venture capital funds.”

Enterprise incubation is still new in Việt Nam but becoming increasingly common around the nation, and HCM City is considered the biggest hub for incubation with 10 Government incubators and 14 private ones.

Phan Quý Trúc from the city Department of Science and Technology reported that private incubators have achieved good results with 60 per cent of enterprises becoming operational, higher than the rate for their Government counterparts.

She explained that the Government’s incubators focus on information technology, agriculture, high technology, bio-technology, which involve high costs for equipment, machinery, materials and require long periods of training while private incubators target e-commerce and telecom, which involve lower costs, and less time and returns are very quick.

“However, private incubators find it difficult to attract foreign investments due to the legal framework.”

The Government incubators have not attracted investors due to red tape and their success ratio is very low at around 15 per cent.

Experts suggested solutions for boosting start-ups like promoting incubation at universities since they have research capabilities, diversifying the source of funds for incubation and supporting start-up products. — VNS