Setting up a startup ecosystem

An An Agri Joint Stock Company (Dien Chau District, Nghe An Province) is currently urgently preparing the production and processing stages of an order of Anpaso vegetable noodles to export to the US next month. This is the first official export order after many years of promotion and trade promotion in the international market. Anpaso vegetable noodles have met organic standards according to the US FDA certification. An An Agri Joint Stock Company has been recognized as a science and technology enterprise in 2022 and is aiming to become a large-scale enterprise in the field of organic food production and distribution.

At ABACA Vietnam Co., Ltd. (Quynh Luu district, Nghe An province), Director Tran Thi Hong Tham and her colleagues are enthusiastically discussing the production, business and trade promotion plan for Nanosalt medicinal salt products. She and her colleagues have applied multi-layer separation technology to reduce salinity and increase minerals for salt products. The multi-mineral salt project has won many science and technology awards such as the First Prize of the "Innovative Startup in Production and Business" Contest in 2022, the Third Prize of the Vietnam Science and Technology Innovation Award... The Nanosalt salt project has created a breakthrough for the Nghe An salt industry, creating community health products and aiming for high-end salt products for export. With this potential and promising project, Nanosalt salt has successfully raised 5 billion VND in capital with an investment commitment from the Song Lam Startup Incubator and VSV Capital Fund.

Production of Nanosalt products at ABACA Vietnam Co., Ltd. (Quynh Luu district, Nghe An province). Photo: HONG THAM

In recent years, Nghe An Provincial People's Committee has coordinated with the Ministry of Science and Technology to co-organize events such as: Exhibition of innovative start-up products and projects in the North Central region; Workshop "Linking to build an innovative start-up ecosystem in the North Central region". The contest "Searching for innovative start-up talents in the North Central region" attracted 30 projects and start-up ideas from individuals and groups of authors from 6 provinces in the North Central region, of which Nghe An has 13 projects and start-up ideas. Up to now, most of these projects have been applied in practice.

Mr. Nguyen Viet Hung, Deputy Director of the Department of Science and Technology of Nghe An province, assessed: “Nghe An's innovation and startup movement is increasingly high in quality, as evidenced by the increasing number of good projects and ideas, and many projects that are feasible when applied in practice, with high commercialization. In 2022, Nghe An was voted by the Vietnam Federation of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Ministry of Education and Training as one of the three provinces with the most typical innovation and startup ecosystem in the country. The startup movement has a smooth and effective coordination between research institutes, universities, businesses, society, management agencies, investment funds, and investors”.

Investment attraction channel

In recent years, the startup movement has developed in both breadth and depth. The contest "Searching for innovative startup talents in Nghe An" in 2022 attracted 116 projects from organizations and individuals across the country to register to participate. Innovative startup projects are increasingly of high quality, with potential and prospects, attracting investors. Typically, Thien Minh Duc Creative Startup Investment Fund committed to investing 25,000 USD for the project of designing and producing items from recycled fabrics of Sen Vang Cooperative and investing 2.5 billion VND for the startup project of vitamin D2, pure juice from vegetables and fruits, healthy eat clean meals and green seed milk D2 of Vitamin D2 Organic Company Limited; the Thien Nhan-Nam Dan lemon project was invested 2 million USD by Sao Thai Duong Investment Joint Stock Company; Gostudio 4.0 TV station project of Gostream Technology Joint Stock Company received 200,000 USD investment from Zone Startups Ventures PTE.LTD Vietnam...

Along with creating an "incubator" for the creative startup movement, the province also promotes research, transfer and application of science and technology in areas such as: Transportation, agriculture, forestry, fishery, medicine; application of new technology and energy saving; step by step developing the market and international cooperation in science and technology... Nghe An has signed and cooperated in science and technology with major domestic scientific organizations and institutes. Typical are the cooperation agreements with the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, the cooperation agreement with the Central Institute for Economic Management Research, the cooperation agreement with Ho Chi Minh City, cooperation with large economic and technological corporations such as: Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group, Viettel Group, FPT Group...

To promote the achieved results and continue to effectively implement long-term plans to promote the innovation and start-up movement in Nghe An in particular and other localities in general, Mr. Nguyen Viet Hung recommended: “The Ministry of Science and Technology needs to have policies to directly support innovative start-up businesses and directly support inventions and useful solutions that have been granted intellectual property protection certificates so that they can be commercialized and create products. The People's Committee of Nghe An province needs to increase funding for science and technology because the current funding is still low, only 0.5% of regular expenditure, so implementing policies to support businesses investing in technological innovation is still difficult. At the same time, the province also needs to study preferential land policies for innovative start-up businesses or have shared workspaces for start-ups that truly consider innovative start-ups as a channel to attract investment”.

With many imprints and bright spots in the innovation and start-up movement, the goal of making Nghe An province a center in this field in the North Central region in the coming time is well-founded and feasible. If ministries, branches and localities create breakthroughs and pioneer in removing barriers in mechanisms, policies and special incentives, the number of innovation and start-up projects will certainly increase and bring success, strongly promoting the socio-economic development of the province and the region.

HOANG HOA LE