Equity crowdfunding platform to boost start-up development

An equity crowdfunding platform is being established to boost the development of start-up firms.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has asked the Ministry of Finance to develop a plan before 2021.

The request was highlighted in the Prime Minister’s Directive No 09/CT-TTg issued recently about creating favourable conditions for start-up firms.

The directive said there were many limitations and difficulties in the start-up ecosystem, which made Vietnam less competitive than other countries in the region.

The problems lie in business prerequisites which did not match Industry 4.0, lack of investment in research and development, limited financial support from the Government and the shortage of a legal framework for the operation of new services.

The Prime Minister asked the Ministry of Planning and Investment to review the Law on Investment to create favourable conditions for foreign investors to found, contribute capital and buy stakes in start-up investment funds in Vietnam.

In addition, incentive policies for the national innovation centre would be developed and proposed to the Government within the first quarter of this year.

The ministry must also provide detailed instructions for firms operating in new business lines, especially those coming from the sharing economy and Industry 4.0.

The Ministry of Science and Technology would develop databases about science and technology organisations, research centres, incubation centres and start-up support organisations to promote their cooperation.

Start-up and innovation support centres would be developed at three universities which the Ministry of Education and Training would select and report to the Prime Minister before the end of March.

The ministry would also raise solutions to encourage the development of start-up firms and promote innovation at universities. Support would be provided to universities to expand their education programmes to include new technologies.

The Prime Minister asked ministries to develop a legal framework for the operation of new businesses run on technology platforms, stressing that the legal framework must encourage technological development and application. 

Under Government Resolution No 01/NQ-CP dated January 1 about socio-economic development this year, accelerating start-up development was important to creating breakthroughs in renovating Vietnam’s economic growth model towards tech-based business, while improving labour productivity and efficient use of resources.

Vietnam is implementing a project to support innovation and start-ups approved in 2016 to create favourable conditions for the development of start-up firms which could scale up rapidly based on intellectual property, technology and new business models.

The project aims to provide support for 2,000 start-up projects and 600 start-up firms.

According to statistics from Echelon Magazine, there are now around 3,000 start-up firms in Vietnam, nearly double the figure of 2015./.