Coworking-space companies form alliance to support startups

The alliance was founded on the occasion of the grand opening of SURF SPACE, the second coworking space of Danang Enterprise Support (DNES), also known as Danang Incubator, at No.35 Thai Phien Street in Danang’s Hai Chau District, to meet the rising demand for working space for startups in Danang and to connect with the international startup communities of Hanoi and HCMC.

The first five cofounders of the alliance—SURF SPACE, IoT Space, Enouvo in Danang, CoPLUS Working Space in Hue and Hub Hoi An Coworking in Quang Nam—will team up to run marketing campaigns, share coworking-space services and build an online platform to create favorable conditions for the enterprise community, including startups, to run their businesses.

Pham Duc Nam Trung, chief executive officer at DNES, pointed out that the alliance is expected to exploit the great potential of coworking spaces needed by Danang-based startups in particular and the central region as a whole. The central coastal city now has 12 coworking spaces, doubling that of 2016, but has failed to meet the current demand, Trung remarked.

SURF SPACE, from now until next month, offers free courses that share knowledge and establish a connection for the enterprise community in Danang, under a program called “Vietnam Digital 4.0.” The program, which is an innovation of Google, was organized by Google in partnership with DNES, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Vietnam Women Entrepreneur’s Council and other organizations.

Vietnam Digital 4.0 will provide digital and soft skills from beginner to advanced levels for local startups and small and super-small-sized enterprises, helping them to enhance their management and business development capacity and online business efficiency, as well as offering more job opportunities to the society.