Da Nang to host start-up innovation event

Da Nang (VNA) - Leading speakers from home and abroad will address the fourth Da Nang Start-up Innovation Festival on November 1.

Vice director of the city’s science and technology department Tran Van Hoang said at a press conference on October 2 at least 30 speakers and experts along with 2,000 businesses, students and investors will join the event.

Peter Vesterbacka is a global entrepreneur and brand communities creator from Finland; Dominic Mellor, the leader of the Mekong Business Initiative of the Asia Development Bank; Jan Lederman, President of Valhalla Private Capital, Canada; founder of Percent Silicon Valley Thach Le Anh; Shark Tank and director of Cyber Agent Investment Foundation Nguyen Manh Dung and other domestic and foreign speakers will all take part.

Hoang said activities including an exhibition of 70 business start-up projects, start-up pitching and business meetings will prelude the conference from October 28-31.

He said the city has established three private funds reserving for start-up projects since 2016.

This year’s event will focus on start-up projects in fields of information technology, tourism and agriculture, aiming at promoting the city’s innovative start-up ecology system for the future.

The city’s business start-up ecosystem debuted in 2014 as a base for the younger generation to begin their careers. Three hundred start-up projects, of which 10 received funding from investors, were born from the ecosystem’s co-working space.

In 2017, the Song Han Incubator Centre, which was seen as the first private sector incubator, was debuted as a consultancy for young people starting businesses.

The centre has supported 40 start-up projects in tourism in Da Nang and HCM City.

Last year, two projects received 7.7 billion VND (335,000 USD) from investors.

Da Nang has 18,000 businesses, 95 percent of which are small and medium-sized enterprises.

The city plans to support 200 projects and 80 start-up businesses, in which at least 20 percent of businesses will successfully call fund from investors, in 2020.

During the occasion of hosting the conference, Da Nang will debut its first Adventurous Fund in supporting start-up businesses./.