Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc (middle) presses a button to kick of the TECHFEST VIETNAM 2020 on Friday. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc has committed to creating the best environment for innovative start-ups and the start-up ecosystem to make Việt Nam become a country of innovation.

Speaking at the youth start-up forum held on Friday as part of the TECHFEST VIETNAM 2020 which opened the same day, the PM said he considered supporting start-ups and businesses as a top priority.

He urged ministries and agencies to regularly hold dialogues with businesses, increase information dissemination and speed up co-ordination with the innovative start-up centre to build financial mechanisms and promote the role of private investment funds.

It was necessary to view innovation as a new resource that must be exploited, an endless resource of 100 million Vietnamese people inside and outside the country, he said, adding that human beings must be seen as a centre of innovation.

He told the youths of today that they needed to see start-ups as an interesting experience and look at failure as a mother of success.

“If you fail, you have to stand up and move on,” he said.

The Government will pay attention to removing obstacles facing start-ups and give priority to investment in technology infrastructure and telecommunications, he said.

He stressed that two years ago when he attended the 2018 Youth Start-up Forum, he found 13.4 million results when searching for the "start-up” keyword online and the figure now was 20.7 million. It meant the start-up spirit had been spread strongly among people of different ages.

At this year’s forum, themed 'Young start-ups shoulder with the nation to overcome challenges', the PM and leaders of ministries and agencies discussed with youths four main issues, including financial policies for start-ups, digital transformation and innovation, opportunities and the role of young start-ups; high-quality human resources; and the young start-up ecosystem.

The national festival for innovative start-ups, TECHFEST VIETNAM 2020, is the largest annual virtual event organised by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) to work with international partners to develop and promote science, technology, and innovation.

Taking place amid global disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, TECHFEST is part of an emerging nation eager to display the dynamism of the Vietnamese start-up ecosystem among investors/investment funds, enterprises, and experts worldwide via virtual events. 

Themed 'Respond - Transform - Breakthrough', the event is structured into 12 technology villages: Medical Technology, Agricultural Technology, Educational Technology, Tourism and F&B Technology, Frontier Technology, Financial Technology, Smart Cities, Social Impact, Student Start-ups, Local Start-ups, Community and International village, with 250 potential start-ups booths, attracting nearly 200 investors, 150 corporations, enterprises and business accelerators virtually and physically.

Addressing the opening ceremony, Minister of Science and Technology Huỳnh Thành Đạt said the start-up ecosystem had entered a new and important period for development, requiring efforts and co-ordination from Government agencies, start-ups and businesses.

There was also a need to work together to innovate from working methods to mindset, developing human resources and creating a proper competitive environment, he said.

Start-ups should be proactive in renewing and changing the development model to create more value, he said. — VNS