Last September, representatives from the Da Nang Startup Council (DSC) and some local businesspeople travelled to Israel, which has earned the moniker of ‘Startup Nation’ mostly because it has largest number of startups per capita in the world, in order to gain a deeper insight into startup models here. 

The Da Nang delegation learning about start-up activities and hi-tech agriculture models in Israel

During their one-week stay in the world's leading innovation country, the Da Nang guests was introduced to advanced technologies applied in high-tech agriculture, as well as operation models and working spaces for startups.

The Israel visit, indeed, helped the Da Nang guests understand why and how Israel became ‘the land of startups’.

Israel is a very small country having a population of only 9 million people and being geographically small ranking 150^th by area. Israel has been lacking in natural resources, especially when compared to oil-rich countries in the Middle East.

Over half of the country is a desert. On a narrow strip of land in the Middle East, the Israeli people surpassed the harshness of nature by their own creativity and hard work. They planted the seeds of hope on this land. Today, this Middle Eastern country is a global tech and startup hub.

Entrepreneurship has become the national pastime in Israel, with hundreds of venture capital firms and thousands of startups, shared working spaces and startup accelerators flocking to Silicon Wadi, Israel’s very own coastal version of San Francisco’s Silicon Valley.

The Director of the Ha Giang-Phuoc Tuong Mechanical Engineering Company, Mr Ha Duc Hung, said that it was a great opportunity for him to join in the Israel visit.

Israeli culture is highly tolerant of out-of-the-box thinking and “crazy and ridiculous ideas”.

Being open to new ideas is a great start, but children must be taught how to come up with new ideas by leveraging their knowledge, and then how to push these ideas forward.

Israeli children are usually taken by parents to visit the museum which displays the world's leading innovations.

“I have great hopes that Da Nang will create such a space in the near future to nurture the start-up spirit amongst future generations”, Hung said.

Another participant participating in the Israel trip, Ms Nguyen Thi Kim Lien, the Director of the city-based An Dien General Trading Company, said what impressed her is that Israeli people, especially the young, are very interested in startup stories. They have always contemplated how to make something new, and this, in turn, inspires them to create more and think bigger.

“The Israeli people have a strong desire to enrich their own country, and even businesspeople who are successful abroad are fully aware of returning their hometown to make joint efforts and contributions to its progress”, Lien remarked.

According to remarks by the entrepreneurship, one of the reasons why Israel is the world's leading start-up country is that successful entrepreneurs are willing to provide financial assistance for newly-founded startups, help to bring their ideas to fruition, and promote it to international market.

Furthermore, the Israeli government is always willing to lend money to start-up companies in a bid to help them maintain their operation to realise their ideas. However, once successfully operational, companies must pay back the money they have received from the national government.

Mr Phan Hai, the Director of the city-based BQ Shoe Company, remarked, “The Israel trip has brought us new ideas and thoughts, urging us to take actions with the hope of building a more effective and practical start-up network in the city”