The international workshop on developing innovation startup ecosystem in Da Nang and the role of people-to-people diplomacy in connecting and mobilising resources took place in Da Nang on Friday.

The event was co-organised by the Da Nang People’s Committee and the Viet Nam Union of Friendship Organisations.

Da Nang People's Committee Vice Chairman Ho Ky Minh speaking at the event

In his opening speech delivered at the event, municipal People’s Committee Vice Chairman Ho Ky Minh informed that, over the past years, the city's innovative start-up ecosystem has formed and developed with many diverse elements supporting each other.

The city has issued many mechanisms, policies, programmes, and plans to create a legal basis and a basis for promoting innovative start-up activities Thanks to this, the quantity and quality of the innovative start-up business community has been constantly increasing in.

Notably, there are a number of innovative start-up enterprises with high technology foundation, catching up with development trends, especially in the fields of information technology, and the application of artificial intelligence. They have attracted a great deal of investment capital from domestic and international investment funds.

With the aforementioned positive results, Da Nang twice won the ‘Attractive City to Start-ups and Innovation’ Award by the Viet Nam Software and IT Services Association (VINASA) in 2020 and 2022.

Vice Chairman Minh highlighted the workshop provided the good opportunity for the city to learn from international models and experience in building and operating an innovation startup ecosystem; accessing foreign resources such as experts, capital and technology; and strengthening the friendship and development cooperation with European and Asian countries.

At the same time, the event helped promote the role of people-to-people diplomacy in service of national construction and development, thereby boosting cultural diplomacy strategies, and advertising the image of Da Nang to international friends, he emphasised.

Chairwoman of the Viet Nam Union of Friendship Organisations Nguyen Phuong Nga

According to Chairwoman of the Viet Nam Union of Friendship Organisations Nguyen Phuong Nga, the State has had many guidelines and policies to create the most favourable conditions to support innovation start-ups over the last years.

Da Nang placed the key role of Central Viet Nam and Central Highlands, and was one of the three national innovation start-up centres, with the continuous formation and development of supporting organisations, incubators, venture capital funds, angel investors, and especially the innovative startup business community.

She underlined the significance of the workshop in supporting and promoting innovation start-ups in Da Nang in particular and in Viet Nam in general.

“This is a good opportunity to share information, exchange and discuss policies and practices in implementing innovation startup programmes in Da Nang, as well as to learn about models and experience from a number of countries in Europe and Asia which have achieved many achievements in building and operating an innovation startup ecosystem” she added.

She hoped that the success of the workshop would make a practical contribution to the realisation of the city’s goal of becoming an innovation startup hub and a liveable coastal city in Asia by 2045, as well as to promote images of Da Nang, and Viet Nam as a whole, to international friends.

From left to right: Director of the Department of Market Development and Science and Technology Enterprises Pham Hong Quat, Vice Chairman of the municipal People's Committee Ho Ky Minh, Chairwoman of the Viet Nam Union of Friendship Organisations Nguyen Phuong Nga, and Italian Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador to Viet Nam Antonio Alessandro co-chaired the workshop. Photo: M.Q - V.H

The international workshop consisted of the opening plenary session and 2 thematic sessions.

In particular, the first session had ‘Da Nang: Building and developing a national innovation startup centre - experience from some countries worldwide in the field of innovation start-ups’ as its theme. It gave an overview of the actual situation of building and developing the innovation startup ecosystem in Da Nang.

Participating delegates shared the State's macro policies in building and developing innovation start-up ecosystems in some developed countries such as Australia and South Korea, along with proposals from the Ministry of Science and Technology for Da Nang in the process of building and developing into a national innovation startup centre.

Meanwhile, the second session featured discussions on support activities for innovation start-ups in Da Nang from the perspective of experts and the business community.

This was an open, in-depth and highly practical discussion session between domestic and foreign experts, and businesses and delegates interested in innovation.

Reporting by M.QUE, V.HOANG - Translating by M.DUNG