Recent years have seen the Da Nang Department of Science and Technology provide active support for the city’s startups community, including its direct cooperation with startup projects and the seeking of seed capital and the appraisal of innovative ideas for them.

The Da Nang Department of Science and Technology has facilitated startup projects to participate in national science and technology exhibitions. Here is a view of the Central Regional Conference on Science and Technology held in June in Da Nang

The Minh Hong Biotechnology Co. Ltd, located in Hoa Minh Ward, Lien Chieu District is one of the city’s typical businesses.

Originating from a startup project supported by the Da Nang Business Incubator, the Minh Hong company, which specialises in producing cleaning fluid from biological products, has thrived considerably to date, and created jobs for hundreds of disadvantaged women.

The company now has a wide network of partners and customers all over the country, and it earns a monthly turnover of more than half a billion VND.

Trinh Thi Hong, the company’s Director, said, in the early days of operation, her own company faced numerous difficulties, specially a severe shortage of capital.

Fortunately, she was very happy to receive timely financial aid from the Department of Science and Technology to build manufacturing facilities and purchase extra equipment in a bid to promote her production activities.

In detail, in 2015, the Department helped Hong’s company register free of charge for the protection of intellectual property rights for its products. One year later, this agency assisted the businesswoman in writing scientific research article on her company’s products so that she could receive 100 million VND in aid from the Da Nang Science and Technology Development Fund.

The strong-willed businesswoman hoped that more local businesses like hers could access such financial assistance from the Fund in the years ahead.

In addition to the giving of active support to startups, the Department of Science and Technology has also played an active role in connecting startup resources with one another in the society.

Early August, the agency has organised many seminars during which big companies and business associations across the city sought their cooperation opportunities with startups for mutual development.

The Da Nang Travel Association, for example, has pledged to support startups in determining unmet customer needs and developing their proper products. In addition, the Association will act as a test market to gauge the viability of products or services developed by local startups in the market mass before to a wide scale roll-out.

Currently, the central Vietnamese city is home to about 30 startup businesses. Many municipal administration-issued preferential policies, especially in term of scientific and technological support, have benefited many startup projects.

It is noticeable that local startups have received assistance to carry out scientific research, technological innovation, registration for intellectual property rights protection and the establishment of science and technology enterprises.

In addition, relevant agencies have helped startup enterprises promote their products and services at fairs and exhibitions in order to seek their consumer markets.

The city administration has also developed a plan to implement the ‘Support Innovative Startup Ecosystem in Viet Nam until 2025' project in order to implement innovative startup support activities for local businesses.

It can be seen that Da Nang's entrepreneurial ecosystem is taking positive steps, whilst the local startup community has gained encouraging results and many startup support organisations have operate effectively.