Vietnam’s Ministry of Science and Technology is working toward improving the quality of Vietnamese startups to reach international standards, said its deputy minister Tran Van Tung at Techfest Vietnam 2019 held in the United States on September 13 (local time).Speaking at the ceremony, Deputy Minister Tran Van Tung emphasized that developing creative startups has been one of the Vietnamese government’s top priorities in recent years.
A view of Techfest Vietnam 2019. Photo: Kinhtedothi.vn
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“Besides, we also focus on supporting resources for domestic creative startups, so that they can operate as per international standards,” he added.
At Vietnam’s first Techfest held abroad, Vietnamese startups made presentation on business model and held one-to-one matching session with large investment funds such as 500 Startups, Pegasus Tech Venture, Highland Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, Dragon Fly, Neo Global Capital, among others.
For his part, Vietnamese Consul General to San Francisco Nguyen Trac Toan talked about opportunities for Vietnamese startups in Silicon Valley. Toan noted that San Francisco is home to the largest global venture capital funds and hoped they will find their investment opportunities in Vietnamese startups.
A series of investment funds and investors held one-to-one meetings with Vietnamese startups at the one-week event.
One of the most important activities of Techfest Vietnam 2019 is the Silicon Valley – Vietnam Ecosystem Connection Forum which gathered a number of prominent Vietnamese figures in the US including professor Nguyen Viet Hung from UC Berkeley, Tri Hoang from Ai20X incubator, Binh Tran from 500 Startups, among others.
At the event, representative from Vietnam’s Ministry of Science and Technology signed cooperation agreements with Pegasus Tech Venture to become the regional partner of Startup World Cup (owned by Pegasus). The Ministry also came to terms with Ai20X on sending 10 Vietnamese startups every year to Silicon Valley for incubation.
“These are parts of the efforts to roll out the masterplan on supporting startup innovation ecosystem to the year 2025”, said Pham Hong Quat, head of the National Agency for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Development (NATEC).
