Prime Minister shares Vietnam's aspiration for a strong country through innovation

Also attending the opening ceremony of the largest annual event for the Vietnamese creative startup community were Politburo member and Head of the Central Propaganda Department Vo Van Thuong, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, along with leaders of several ministries, sectors, startups, investors, youth, and students.

Never before has the desire to start a business been as burning as it is now.

“Like you, everyone has aspirations and dreams, wishing to succeed in their careers and lives,” the Prime Minister began his speech. The aspirations of every Vietnamese person will blend into the greater aspirations of our nation for a prosperous country and happy people. By 2045, the 100th anniversary of National Day, Vietnam’s goal will be to become a developed country, with a per capita income of more than 18,000 USD. The Prime Minister believes that the current wave of startups will create a generation of proud Vietnamese entrepreneurs. There is no more meaningful gift than this for 2045.

The Prime Minister said that on Google search engine, there are millions of articles related to the keywords “start-up” and “innovation”. Meanwhile, a few years ago, these keywords were not popular in Vietnam. This shows that the society’s interest in the issue of start-up and innovation is growing. This is another good sign for our festival.

“We are witnessing the entrepreneurial atmosphere spreading across the country, in every region of the country, from young people to the elderly, regardless of ethnicity or religion because entrepreneurship has no boundaries or limits.

We have many start-up programs on television, some newspapers also devote a lot of space to forums and start-up ideas, some universities also have training programs or start-up centers,... It can be said that the desire to start a business has never burned so strongly in each of us as it does now. Each of us wants to build a solid career for ourselves, our families and contribute to society - the Prime Minister affirmed.

Vietnamese people have all the innate qualities for creativity.

“But the goal of starting a business is not simply a way to make a living and build a career, but also a philosophy of life, to assert ourselves, challenge ourselves, and test our potential limits,” said the Prime Minister.

Why do we call it creative startups? The Prime Minister raised the issue and explained: The meaning of this keyword is very profound, in which we consider creativity as a new resource for us to start a business. Humanity does not have many natural resources to exploit and neither does Vietnam, but we have an endless resource, which is human creativity, the potential within each of us.

There is no resource as endless and eternal as creativity. Starting a business on the basis of creativity, I believe success will surely come.

Creativity must come from people and be for people. People must be the center of creativity. We Vietnamese have all the innate qualities for creativity. The Prime Minister believes that if we have enough good nutrients, we will create outstanding people for the country. “Let us nurture our dreams and realize our unlimited creative startup aspirations.”

Expressing his joy that on the ranking of valuable startup brands in the world, there are 93 names from Vietnam, including some brands ranked in the top 500 and top 1,000 in the world such as Baomoi, Web-Sosanh, Lozi, HelloBacsi..., but the Prime Minister believes that there are still many other valuable creative startups of Vietnam that have not been updated or are being missed on the ranking. Because our number of 93 startups is still modest compared to our potential.

The Prime Minister said that Vietnam's 2018 Global Innovation Index (GII) ranked quite high, 45th out of 126 ranked economies. In the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) ranking, we ranked 15th out of 54 ranked economies.

Every startup idea, big or small, is valuable.

However, according to the Prime Minister, the Government also frankly acknowledged the reality that our startup ecosystem is still not good.

“I want to ask you a question: Are you afraid of failure when starting a business? I believe some of you will answer yes. That is natural. We understand that the journey of innovative start-up is an exciting adventure, a process of learning, accumulating experience and discovering one’s own abilities,” said the Prime Minister.

Quoting our grandparents' saying "failure is the mother of success" or the saying in Silicon Valley (USA): "You will not succeed if you never fail. You will learn a lot from failure", the Prime Minister asked: Are you ready to accept "trial and error"? Let's all foster a fearless entrepreneurial spirit.

“I hope young people understand correctly and fully about innovative startups, realizing their dreams and ambitions. Innovative startups do not necessarily originate from the desire to be the boss, to seek high profits. Innovative startups do not necessarily start from big things, but often from simple jobs, normal things with new, creative solutions, sometimes just expanding business, new fields, new products, new technical innovations. Startups can start by establishing a company, or a business household, or starting from restructuring a business with a long history of development. Innovative startup ideas, whether small or large, are valuable, as long as they enable you to live your dream and thereby create value for society. Be confident, have burning aspirations and always maintain the flame of your passion and ambition.”

Forming a unified national startup center

The Prime Minister acknowledged that the Government should also ask itself why so many Vietnamese people have to go abroad to start businesses, especially in Singapore. It is known that the Coc Coc browser and the Lozi social network about food and drink locations are considered quite successful startup projects of Vietnamese people but they chose Singapore as their place of business registration. “I think we have to dare to admit that we are weaker than Singapore so that we can learn from them, look at what they are doing well so that we can follow but not completely follow them. We should be confident that we can do better than Singapore in many criteria.”

On this occasion, the Prime Minister affirmed that the Government is committed to providing the highest protection for intellectual property rights, initiatives, and startup ideas. Because the Government understands that these are your invaluable, even priceless, or unique assets. Ministries, sectors, and local authorities need to consider supporting businesses and startups as a top priority on their agenda.

We must form a complete startup ecosystem, connecting and converging people with capabilities in many fields such as management, technology, finance, marketing, etc. into a cluster. In other words, we must have a heart for the startup ecosystem.

Currently, Vietnam has many startup centers everywhere, but their activities are fragmented and lack connection. We need to connect these startup centers to increase interaction and value resonance effects.

The Prime Minister proposed forming a unified National Startup Center (initially located in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang) and building a National Startup Connection Network.

The Prime Minister stated that Vietnam nurtures young people like a mother nurtures her children. “It is time to go out into the world, conquer the world, bring the world to Vietnam. A great national dream will create great businesses, great people. Today's young people themselves need to have a bigger dream, a bigger aspiration and that will be the reason for your existence and development on the road ahead.”

“I wish you more faith, more aspiration, more work, more responsibility for your country to realize the dream of a strong Vietnam,” said the Prime Minister.

Duc Tuan