In order to realise its goal of becoming a start-up and innovation destination in ASEAN in 2030, Da Nang is in need of assistance from international start-up organisations.

Chairman of Da Nang’s Start-up Network Council Vo Duy Khuong (2nd left) at the International Startup Conference and Exhibition 2017 (SURF)

Despite having been established much later than in other localities nationwide and other ASEAN member countries, Da Nang’s start-up ecosystem has gained remarkable achievements thanks to great support from local government.  The focus has been on boosting bilateral cooperation with foreign countries.  In particular, heed has been on learning about experience and start-up operation models from foreign investors, consultants and start-up business incubators through numerous international cooperative programmes. 

According to the statistics from the municipal Socio-Economic Development Research Institute, since 2015 Da Nang has worked with a total of around 20 international start-up partners.  Included are the Embassy of Israel in Viet Nam, the Asia Development Bank, the Mekong Business Initiative, the Swiss EP Startup Support Programme, the Central Institute for Scientific Entrepreneurship and International Transfer which is part of the University of Koblenz-Landau in Germany, and the US Arizona State University.

Thanks to the international effective cooperative programmes, the city’s start-up ecosystem has appealed for even more assistance from international organisations in training human resources, providing consultancy services, and transferring advanced technologies involved in start-up activities.

Mr Vu Xuan Truong, Director of the Research and Development Centre of the Da Nang Entrepreneurship Support Company (DNES), highlighted the importance of creating closer links with start-up communities worldwide in order to receive financial aid and train involved human resources, as well as boost science-technology transfer activities.  He added that special attention is being paid to enhancing the city’s tourism start-up activities.  Specifically mentioned is the Mekong Innovative Startup in Tourism (MIST) programme which has been launched in the city since the start of the year.  Most notably, DNES has become one of official Vietnamese partners of MIST.

In the future, the city’s start-up ecosystem will expand its connections with ‘digital nomads’ who use telecommunications technologies to earn a living in many aspects and, more generally, conduct their lives in a nomadic manner.  Da Nang is now home to over 300 ‘digital nomads’. 

Director Truong also highlighted the importance of developing a ‘digital nomads’ community to boost local start-up activities, especially in information technology.