Thanks to venture capital funds, will private capital "flow strongly" into Vietnam's strategic technology?

Open the "Venture Capital Fund" corridor

Currently, Vietnam has only over 30 venture capital funds, not large in scale, not meeting the needs of the start-up community. In previous years, Vietnam has not attracted venture capital investors despite having a dynamic economy , mainly because it has not created a clear legal environment.

However, recently, the legal "barrier" has been removed when the Law on Science , Technology and Innovation took effect from October 1, 2025 and in particular, on October 14, 2025, the Government issued Decree No. 264/2025/ND-CP on the National Venture Capital Fund and local venture capital funds.

This is considered a step forward in perfecting institutions, a strategic "policy lever" to strongly promote the startup and innovation ecosystem in Vietnam, especially at the local level, where there is great potential but investment resources are limited.

Nhờ quỹ đầu tư mạo hiểm, dòng vốn tư nhân sẽ — *Mr. Pham Duc Nghiem, Deputy Director of the Department of Startups and Technology Enterprises ( Ministry of Science and Technology ). Photo: Ministry of Science and Technology*

Responding to the press on this issue at the regular October press conference of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Mr. Pham Duc Nghiem, Deputy Director of the Department of Startups and Technology Enterprises (Ministry of Science and Technology), said that this is the first time Vietnam has had a legal corridor for venture capital funds.

The Decree aims to create a breakthrough mechanism to mobilize private capital for high-risk but high-potential research and development projects, instead of relying solely on budget capital.

According to Mr. Pham Duc Nghiem, different from previous models of co-funding science and technology tasks, for the first time in terms of legal framework, Decree 264 allows private entities, private investment funds, and angel investors to contribute capital with the State in projects.

"Funds can also hire licensed professional fund management units according to the State's conditions and criteria to ensure transparency and operational efficiency," Mr. Nghiem shared.

The highlight of the legal regulations is the exemption from civil liability, excluding administrative liability related to losses arising for investors and businesses such as: Losses arising from objective risks, not due to intentional errors of organizations, individuals or risks due to market fluctuations beyond reasonable forecasting ability.

Even changes in legal policies that directly affect the efficiency or ability to divest investments, or natural disasters, epidemics, geopolitical conflicts or other force majeure situations that disrupt the operations of innovative startups are also considered factors exempting from liability...

Raising private sector capital for venture capital, accelerating strategic technology

Meanwhile, Mr. Luong Van Thuong, Head of the Department of Innovation and Startup, Agency for Startups and Technology Enterprises (Ministry of Science and Technology) said that the two basic philosophies of the model are "public investment, private governance" and "using public investment to lead private investment".

The capital for the fund comes from two sources: the State budget and mobilization from the private sector. Accordingly, the National Fund has an initial capital contribution of VND500 billion, expected to reach VND2,000 billion in the first 5 years. The local fund is not bound by a fixed capital level, and the decision-making power is given to each province.

Decree 264 clearly stipulates risk limits and investment efficiency assessment mechanisms. The total loss arising from investments using charter capital must not exceed 50% of charter capital and does not require capital preservation for each individual project.

Instead, performance is assessed across the overall portfolio over a maximum 10-year cycle, or 15 years for technology projects linked to civil, defense and strategic sectors.

The expansion of the legal corridor has helped many localities promote the establishment of Venture Capital Funds, typically Hai Phong. In early July 2025, the National Assembly passed Resolution 226 allowing Hai Phong to establish a Venture Capital Fund to invest capital in high-tech projects and high-tech enterprises.

When the Law on Science, Technology and Innovation and Decree 264 were issued, the Hai Phong People's Council officially "opened" and approved the establishment of a Venture Investment Fund, operating in the form of a joint stock company. The Fund was allocated 500 billion VND by the Hai Phong People's Committee from the estimated budget for development investment.

Regarding strategic technology products, Mr. Ha Minh Hiep, Chief of Office of the Ministry of Science and Technology, said that in October, the Ministry submitted to the Prime Minister to deploy 4 strategic technology products from October 31 and set a target to deploy the remaining products in December.

In addition, a representative of the Department of Information Technology Industry said that the Ministry of Science and Technology is focusing on promoting and supporting research and development, mastering technology, transferring and commercializing products and services for network safety and security.

The Ministry has submitted to the Prime Minister a project to form a large-scale domestic strategic technology enterprise to develop infrastructure, digital human resources, digital data, strategic security technology, and network safety.

According to Dan Viet newspaper

Source: https://mst.gov.vn/nho-quy-dau-tu-mao-hiem-dong-von-tu-nhan-se-chay-manh-vao-cong-nghe-chien-luoc-viet-nam-197251130220321.htm