Last Friday, representatives from Da Nang’s Coordination Council for Business Start-up Network (Coordination Council) and Microsoft Viet Nam entered into an agreement on enhancing the capacity of start-up businesses. 

Present at the signing ceremony in Ho Chi Minh City were Da Nang People’s Committee Vice Chairman Ho Ky Minh, Coordination Council’s President Vo Duy Khuong, Vice President of World Wide Small and Medium-Sized Business Sales at Microsoft David Smith, General Director of Microsoft Viet Nam Vu Minh Tri, and General Director of Expara Viet Nam Douglas Abrams.

Coordination Council’s President Khuong (left) and a Microsoft Viet Nam representative at the signing ceremony

Under the agreement, CLAS Expara Startup Accelerator, which is a 120-day programme to help increase capacity for start-up businesses, will be carried out in Da Nang.

Speaking at the ceremony, Vice Chairman Minh remarked, “The CLAS programme plays an important role for the city’s start-up community.  This will help to build and perfect the local startup ecosystem in the coming time, as well as assist local start-up businesses with their potential projects, and promote research and innovation activities in the community”.    

Coordination Council’s President Khuong said, “The agreement will help to establish a closer link amongst start-ups in the central region in order to increase their competitiveness by boosting the application of information technology.  This will help them maintain their stable and sustainable development”.

Within the framework of the CLAS programme in Viet Nam, Microsoft Viet Nam will provide Vietnamese start-up businesses with the opportunity to access free-of-charge Microsoft technology, including BizSpark and BizSpark Plus packages with the total value of $147,000, for 3 years.  In addition, Microsoft Viet Nam will develop a go-to-market plan with startups whose solutions meet the needs of Microsoft customers.