Dare to innovate and start a business to create "unicorns" of great stature

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh speaks at the Vietnam Techfest Imprint 2022 program. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA

On the evening of December 3, in Binh Duong province, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attended the Techfest Imprint 2022 program in the series of National Innovation and Startup Festival 2022 (Techfest Vietnam 2022) with the theme "Open innovation - Unleashing new thinking" jointly organized by the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the People's Committee of Binh Duong province.

The program was attended by Minister of Science and Technology Huynh Thanh Dat; Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee for Science, Technology and Environment Le Quang Huy; leaders of ministries, branches, socio-political organizations in the Central and Binh Duong provinces.

In particular, the event attracted about 8,000 in-person and online attendees from 63 provinces, cities and 20 countries around the world.

Techfest Vietnam 2022 with the theme "Open innovation - Unleashing new thinking" takes place in Binh Duong from December 2-4.

Within the framework of Techfest Vietnam 2022, there will be about 30 conferences and seminars on technology trends, investment connections, sharing experiences in developing innovative startup ecosystems; sharing experiences and lessons on model transformation to adapt and break through after the pandemic...

In particular, the National Policy Forum on Developing Innovative Startup Ecosystem 2021-2025 and the Techfest Imprint 2022 program will take place.

In his opening speech, Minister of Science and Technology Huynh Thanh Dat said that with the theme "Open innovation - Unleashing new thinking," Techfest Vietnam 2022 aims to find solutions for areas that are heavily affected by the pandemic and have potential in the future such as healthcare, education, energy, etc.; solve human problems, such as training and fostering human resources to meet the needs of the domestic and international markets, strive to promote the talents of Vietnamese people, contribute to job creation, create good values ​​for future generations; especially the task of restoring the post-pandemic economy and applying technology to handle post-COVID-19 difficulties.

Representatives of managers, experts, scientists, businesses, and the domestic and international innovation and startup community spoke, shared many opinions and experiences, and proposed many practical and feasible solutions for innovation and startup.

Speaking at the event, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh affirmed that in the current trend of integration and development, entrepreneurship and business creation are essential driving forces of each country's economy and the world's, solving global difficulties and challenges as well as aiming at sustainable development of each country in particular and the world in general.

Our Party and State always advocate promoting the transformation of the growth model based on the application of science, technology and innovation to improve productivity, quality and competitiveness of the economy.

This policy was mentioned in the documents and political reports from the 12th National Party Congress. This content was once again affirmed by the Party in the documents of the 13th National Congress, with a higher determination in the direction of "Promoting national digital transformation, developing the digital economy on the basis of science and technology, innovation; improving productivity, quality, efficiency and competitiveness of the economy, harmoniously and effectively connecting domestic and international markets."

Over the years, the Party and State of Vietnam have had many policies and guidelines to create the most favorable conditions and environment for startups and innovation. The Government has specified these through mechanisms, policies, promulgated legal frameworks and projects to support the national startup and innovation ecosystem.

“This is an important legal foundation for the startup-innovation ecosystem to develop strongly in Vietnam,” the Prime Minister emphasized.

Ministries, branches and localities also have their own programs and projects to promote the startup movement.

Most provinces and centrally-run cities have issued plans to implement Project 844 and allocated resources for implementation.

In addition, the Youth Union also launched a program to support young people in starting a business.

Dynamically developing ecosystem with about 140 universities, academies, colleges with creative startup activities, establishing incubators, centers, clubs... to support long-term startups.

The head of the Government shared that starting a business is difficult, but starting a creative business, creating value on the basis of exploiting intelligence, technology, and new sustainable business models is much more difficult.

The Prime Minister was delighted that Vietnamese people have been building such business models; thereby initially creating a foundation for development and reaching international standards; a number of Vietnamese start-up and creative businesses worth billions of USD have been formed and developed both domestically and internationally.

“Vietnamese intelligence, Vietnamese will, and Vietnamese creativity have been gradually asserting themselves and reaching out to the world,” the Prime Minister affirmed.

According to the Prime Minister, Vietnam continues to maintain its ranking in the group of 45 leading countries globally in the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Innovation Index (GII); continues to be considered by WIPO as a country with systematic progress in innovation and great potential; and is assessed by international organizations as being in the top 3 most dynamic creative startup ecosystems in Southeast Asia.

According to the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2022 report by the World Intellectual Property Organization, Vietnam is among the countries that have made the greatest progress in the past decade (up 20 places), in which Vietnam is rated quite well in terms of institutions, market development, business maturity and innovation outcomes.

The Prime Minister also pointed out that although initial results have been encouraging, due to a slower starting point, Vietnam's startup and innovation ecosystem still has a gap compared to some countries in the region and the world.

To soon narrow this gap and quickly turn Vietnam into a strong startup nation, the Prime Minister said that ministries, branches, localities, agencies and units need to have solutions to link startups and innovation with knowledge, science and technology and the unique characteristics of the country and people of Vietnam.

Along with that, identifying startups and innovation as the tasks of all levels, sectors, localities, agencies, units and each individual; implementing synchronously, extensively, regularly and continuously but must have focus, key points and effectiveness; Harmoniously and effectively combining the development of endogenous capacity with maximizing opportunities and external resources; promoting the tradition, culture, national history, spirit of solidarity, self-reliance and self-reliance of the Vietnamese people.

The Prime Minister said that the State will provide direction, coordinate, build institutions and policies, and create a favorable environment for the effective operation of the entire startup and innovation system.

The State increases awareness of the position, role and importance of startups and innovation; strengthens the leadership and direction of Party committees and authorities at all levels; pays attention to, invests in, and has breakthrough tools and policies to promote the application of technology and innovation to enhance the competitiveness of the country, localities and enterprises; focuses on building and perfecting institutions, mechanisms and policies to promote the capital market, human resources, science, technology, new products... related to startups and innovation in a direction consistent with market mechanisms and international practices.

Along with that, synchronously develop the national, sectoral, regional, high-tech zones, and "innovation incubators" innovation system, in which enterprises are the center and institutes and schools are the research subjects; strongly develop human resources for creative startups, equip knowledge, skills, and encourage the spirit of startups and innovation from high school levels; increase attraction and diversify financial resources to support startups and innovation from many different sources; promote appropriate and effective investment cooperation methods in startup and innovation activities.

The Head of Government hopes that through the Techfest event, managers, investors, scientists, the Vietnamese startup and innovation community and representatives of provinces and cities will receive many valuable experiences and good lessons to best support the creative startup ecosystem.

The Prime Minister called on scientists, organizations, individuals, businesses, and domestic and foreign investors to contribute more actively to Vietnam's startup and innovation cause.

The Vietnamese startup and innovation community, especially the young generation, continues to promote the spirit, courage and intelligence of the Vietnamese people, dare to face difficulties and challenges, and are not afraid of failure; have strong motivation, burning faith, passion, enthusiasm, dare to think, dare to do, dare to innovate, create, dare to start a business to create "unicorns" of regional and world stature, contributing to building a strong and prosperous Vietnam, where all Vietnamese people are warm, well-off and happy.

At the event, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attended the Top 10 Awards Ceremony of the National Innovation and Startup Talent Search Competition and performed the Techfest 2022 Imprint ceremony; witnessed the signing ceremony of cooperation to develop the innovation and startup ecosystem and support digital transformation of Vietnam-Singapore industry.

Previously, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and delegates visited an exhibition of innovative startup products and services.

The exhibition includes hundreds of booths displaying innovative startup products and services, of which 10% are booths displaying products of science and technology enterprises, 70% are products and idea models of startups, and the remaining booths display new products of potential enterprises.

According to VNA