Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Tran Van Tung informed that in the past few years, the Vietnamese innovative startup ecosystem has witnessed various positive signals thanks to the facilitation and support of the Government. The venture capital pouring into Vietnam this year has risen by 9 times compared to 2015 to reach over US$1.3 billion.
Vietnam has been considered a nation of a strong and diverse startup ecosystem, with a tenfold increase of startup enterprises from 400 in 2012 to 4,000 in 2020. Many of them have transformed into stable corporation such as VNG, VNPay, Axie Infinity.
However, the Deputy Minister commented that it is not at all easy for innovative startups to carry out the Initial Public Offering (IPO) process since they need to convince investors with their novel, unique model that is able to adapt quickly to unexpected fluctuations of the market, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic full of risks.
Although neighboring nations in ASEAN have recorded 54 IPO deals worth $5 billion in total, Vietnam in the last 6 months has seen no such a contract. Therefore, the Science and Technology Ministry is planning to introduce support policies on developing the national and international investment markets to aid Vietnamese startups.
In the conference, domestic and foreign experts have shared their knowledge on policy frames in the world regarding IPO for innovative startups, the real demands of startups, and necessary support to carry out the IPO process.
Axel Schultze, Chairman of Global Innovation Forum, shared that IPO does not merely mean attracting capital for a business, but an important factor for the national growth. “To develop, each nation needs strong businesses. The innovation spirit has been widely spread in Vietnam, helping it to achieve impressive breakthroughs in the future”, stressed the Chairman.
President of SIHUB Huynh Kim Tuoc said that his organization has built a training program for startups as to the IPO process. It is now providing consultation services to help startups, small and medium enterprises (SME) to standardize themselves for this essential process.
Simultaneously, SIHUB is developing a startup project exchange (sandbox), an IPO community, and a connection to form an innovative startup financial market and IPO. “Since this is an initial program, we are calling upon the contribution of the community so that needy enterprises can be better supported”, said President Tuoc.
Deputy Minister Tung highly appreciated SIHUB’s program and further informed that the Office of Project 844 (Supporting National Innovative Startup Ecosystem to 2025 – ISEV) assigned SIHUB to launch proper IPO training sessions, in hope of 50 domestic businesses being able to carry out this process.
He expressed the wish that in the upcoming time, this training program be more professional to help startup enterprises be valued at over $100 million and finish their startup path at the IPO process.
