The Da Nang- based Viet Nam - Korea University of Information and Communication Technology has worked with the Da Nang Department of Science and Technology to launch the Program for Incubating Startup Ideas in Central Viet Nam and Central Highlands in 2022 (PISI 2022).

PISI 2022 aims to fund and support start-up projects and ideas developed by regional students in the fields of information technology, communications and digital economy. The program is expertly supported by PUM Netherlands senior experts, a non-profit organisation, which has been advising businesses in developing countries and emerging markets for 35 years. PUM therefore promotes entrepreneurship, self-sufficiency and the sustainable development of small and medium-sized enterprise locally. Especially, PUM Netherlands senior experts is a volunteer organisation committed to the sustainable development of university business incubators in developing countries.

Participants in PISI 2022 will have a chance to access entrepreneurship training, which aims to equip them with relevant knowledge and skills, as well as receive technical advice and funds to help them perfect their products and to be able to create the suitable business model for a new product commercialization. PISI 2022 is packed with 3 rounds which are preliminary, semi-final, and final stage, and it is scheduled to take place from March until July 2022.

The program’s organisers will select best project groups with excellent ideas to fund their products, and winning projects will receive a total prize value of VND 50 million.

Initiated in 2015, PISI has yielded many remarkable results. Included are spreading the spirit of entrepreneurship to more than 1,000 universities, junior colleges and senior high schools across Viet Nam, as well as connecting startups and such investors as Lotus Fund, and the Mekong Angel Investment Network (MAIN). Besides, heed has been paid to supporting 252 start-up projects at the pre-incubation stage, of which the Smart Mirror project received nearly US$2,000 in funding from Lotus Fund and its product has been put into use at holiday resorts in Da Nang. Moreover, more than 100 classes for entrepreneurship training have been opened across the country while bilingual ‘Entrepreneurship Book of Vietnamese Cases’ has been published. The overall aim of the book is for cases to be introduced as teaching support material and to provide the students with concrete and relevant local business cases. The cases, described as stories, seek to light the imagination of students. After the teachers present the cases to the students, the students will explore and review several dimensions of different theories, processes and practices that are integral to the study of entrepreneurship. PISI has also attracted 80 leading domestic and international startup experts to provide professional advice and support for its participants.

Reporting by PHONG LAN – Translating by H.L