HCM CITY – Building a vibrant start-up eco-system is an important step in the Asia Pacific region, Võ Tân Thành, vice president of the Việt Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, has said.

Speaking at  the APEC Start-up Forum on the sidelines of the APEC Small and Medium Enterprises Ministerial Meeting being held in HCM City, Thành said in the context of globalisation, fostering entrepreneurship and innovation had become a common goal of all economies.

Developed economies in the bloc like the US, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore constantly improved their start-up eco-system to ensure the best business opportunities were grasped to boost economic growth, he said.

Therefore, it was very important for developing economies like Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Việt Nam, to emulate them to nurture entrepreneurship, he said.

"Việt Nam is engaging very strongly in promoting entrepreneurship nation-wide and offers many new policies and incentives to support start-ups. Việt Nam is considered among the economies to embrace entrepreneurship the most in the APEC region."

Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Trần Văn Tùng said "with all the challenges and opportunities that come with globalisation and the fourth industrial revolution, promoting entrepreneurship and innovation has become an inevitable trend and is the focus of all APEC economies like never before".

Start-up networks, start-up nation models, silicon valleys, incubators, and innovation centres had been built everywhere in the world, he said.

"However, APEC economies as well as other economies in the world are facing many challenges. To name a few, many start-up eco-systems in the region are still underdeveloped, there are big gaps between economies, start-ups find it hard to access resources."

He called on APEC economies to strengthen co-operation to address these challenges and build a strong network to support the start-up community.

The forum, hosted by VCCI, has brought together many experts with experience in working with start-ups and small firms around the world, who are sharing their insights.

Start-up destination

Tùng said Việt Nam was working towards becoming a destination for start-up businesses, and in the last three years more and more young Vietnamese had chosen to become entrepreneurs and want to establish their own businesses.

Việt Nam had set a target of increasing the number of efficient enterprises to one million by 2020, he said.

"But what is more important than achieving this target is to ensure the quality of the new enterprises, and they have to be strong enough to compete on a global scale to take Vietnamese products to international markets," he said.

In establishing new businesses, entrepreneurs should pay closer attention to innovation, commercialisation and adoption of new business models, he added.

Phạm Thị Thu Hằng, VCCI secretary general, told the media "Việt Nam is on its way to becoming a ’start-up destination’ since it has a promising market, is growing very fast and its population is still relatively young".

Since young Vietnamese dare to think big and act, they can join hands to form a vibrant start-up community, according to Hằng.

"Besides, local authorities also play a big role here. They are the ones who are putting in efforts to build start-up communities in their hometowns."

Officials from Huế and An Giang and Ninh Thuận provinces, which are quite far from HCM City, were attending the forum, she added.

The APEC Startup Forum 2017, has attracted around 300 delegates and speakers from APEC economies.—VNS