Việt Nam News talks to representatives of organisations and countries about start-up and innovation collaboration with Việt Nam.

Caitlin Wiesen, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) resident representative in Việt Nam

Việt Nam has a very exciting and vibrant start-up eco-system. As one of the fastest growing country in ASEAN region, many things have been done very well.

From UN and UNDP standpoint, we are particularly interested in nurturing start-ups that have social and environmental outcomes to their work. Việt Nam can make investment in these areas to show transformational impacts to sustainable development.

The youth is an enormous force of creativity and vitality in the country and can be a driving force to delivering Sustainable Development Goals. We have seen through our Youth Co:Lab that there is an incredible creativity.

We founded a national Youth Co:Lab and a regional Youth Co:Lab. We work together with CitiBank, start-up community, Vietnamese Ministry of Science and Technology and university system, creating a really dynamic platform and important connection.

UNDP has started an accelerator lab which supports skills for innovation and scaling. One of its missions is to work with social and environmental impacts. We will work with this network and connect them with 60 other labs across the world.

Gareth Ward, British Ambassador to Việt Nam

There are a lot of British companies interested in investing in technology in Việt Nam. At Techfest, we have a British stand with companies including NashTech, an IT company creating thousands of jobs for IT programming, expanding, looking for graduates and young Vietnamese talents; financial service companies including insurance companies like Prudential.

Investment in Vietnamese start-ups is growing very fast. This year, the investment is around US$900 million which is triple what it was last year. There are lots of potentials to grow.

In Việt Nam, we have sectors that can expand fast, for instance, financial service technology. Twenty five per cent of population in Việt Nam don’t have bank accounts so there are a lot of opportunities.

And also there are opportunities in health and education technology. There are great demands of good quality and products meeting international standards.

Johan Alvin, second secretary, head of trade promotion, economic and political affairs, Embassy of Sweden in Việt Nam

We have a lot of Swedish companies present in Việt Nam including our biggest corporations and multinational companies which have been in Việt Nam in more than 20 years.

We will have more research collaboration between Vietnamese and Swedish universities. More Vietnamese students are going to Sweden to study. And Swedish students also come to study in Việt Nam.

We are collaborating with Vietnamese counterparts and authorities to really gear Việt Nam to move ahead with science development  and economic development as a whole.

Our support for Vietnamese start-ups is driven by companies themselves who partner with small companies through their network.

Kevin Ryan, ASEAN director of Enterprise Ireland, Irish Government Trade and Technology Office

We run incubation centres, accelerators, support universities and provide funding and training for start-ups in Ireland. We are here to provide expertise and experience to Vietnamese start-ups.

I’m working with ASEAN Angel Funds to support and provide consultations as much as support and advice as we can to ASEAN and Việt Nam.

We are opening a new office in HCM City. We will be providing more support on the ground towards companies. Hopefully, we will work very closely with Vietnamese Government to help with innovation, entrepreneurship and star-up eco-system. — VNS