Hanoi (VNA) – Theadministration of Hanoi has issued a number of breakthrough mechanisms andpolicies to support the development of startups.

According to the municipalPeople’s Committee, amid the rapid development of technology, especially theFourth Industrial Revolution, countries around the world have been investingstrongly in innovation application and innovative entrepreneurship to developmanufacturing foundation.

The Vietnamese Governmentviews innovative entrepreneurship as one of the national-level goals to provideencouragement and support to turn ideas into innovative startups.

Unlike normal startups,innovative startups are capable of growing fast in terms of clientele, revenue,and profit thanks to the capitalisation of intellectual property, technology,and new business models. If they can manage to surmount difficulties andchallenges, they can contribute considerably to socio-economic development.

Given this, creating anoptimal environment for innovative startups is one of the focal tasks of Hanoiauthorities at present, the Cong Thuong (Industry & Trade) newspaper reported.

The capital city is currentlyhome to about 268,000 businesses, ranking second nationwide. It has witnessed asharp rise in the number of enterprises over the past years, but innovative firmsmake up just a modest proportion, about 0.1 percent.

Notably, a survey of some businessincubators and associations shows that most of startups there are small- andmedium-sized enterprises operating on digital platforms. This type of businessesis considered a stepping stone for the formation of innovative startups.Therefore, these companies need assistance in terms of both corporategovernance skills and technical infrastructure so as to grow fast, increase thesuccess rate, and contribute more to the economy.

Learning of startups’development demand and difficulties, Hanoi has issued breakthrough solutions tosupport them, including improving the economic policy, setting up an investmentsupport fund, attracting foreign investors, offering tax incentives, and optimising business procedures.

Of note, the city approved a projecton supporting innovative startups for the 2019 - 2025 period.

This project aims to completeand developing the innovative startup ecosystem in Hanoi; create a favourableenvironment for facilitating the types of enterprises able to grow fast basingon intellectual property, technology, and new business models; and perfectmechanisms and policies to boost innovative entrepreneurship, therebycontributing to fast and sustainable economic growth of the capital city.

Among its detailedobjectives, the project will work to connect elements of the startup ecosystemto develop a network of innovative startup support; increase communications toencourage innovative entrepreneurship in each resident, young people, andintellectual; and form a centre for innovation and entrepreneurship in Hanoi toconnect domestic and international resources for bolstering startups.

In particular, the projectwill assist the establishment of two - three more business incubators tosupport innovative entrepreneurship, encourage the formation of three - fiveprivate support funds for innovative startups, and attract foreign investmentin innovative startups in the capital.

Hanoi expects that by 2025,500 innovative startup projects will have been helped to develop and 150innovative startups assisted to commercialise their products. Among them, atleast 20 percent will succeed in raising capital from venture funds, whilemergers and acquisitions worth about 500 billion VND (21.9 million USD) will beconducted.

Experts held that Hanoi holdsnumerous factors to become an innovative startup centre of Vietnam as it boastshigh-quality human resources thanks to a large network of leading universities,colleges, vocational schools.

However, to become a trueinnovative startup centre, it still needs to make strong and strategicinvestment to tap into its strengths, they said, adding that the implementationof the innovative startup support project is an urgent need, matches thecurrent entrepreneurship demand, and also helps turn Hanoi into an innovativestartup centre of the whole country./.