Five years ago, Hanoi started a business incubator project with financial assistance from the European Union. The city authorities will directly monitor the activities of the Hanoi Business Incubator from this year forward.

The incubator aims to assist start-up businesses operating in food processing and packaging.

Beneficiary enterprises are entitled to rent production and research facilities in the incubator for a period of two or three year. During this time, they will also receive advice on business matters. At the end of the period, they will leave the incubator to make place for up-and-coming enterprises.

In the last five years the project has assisted 200 businesses, many of which have continued successfully after leaving the incubator.

At a recent meeting to review the project, representatives from the EU and the Vietnamese Government affirmed that the incubator is the best model to support small and medium-sized businesses, especially at the start of their operations. This has been proved in many countries. Therefore, Vietnam will use this model to assist businesses in other fields.

Tran Thi Chau, Chief Executive Officer of the Hanoi Business Incubator, said a similar model is being considered to support businesses in the technology sector.

Over the past five years, the EU has provided 875,000 EUR and other support in the form of software as well as experts to the incubator.

As Vietnam continues the project, businesses are also expected to contribute to the incubator’s operation budget. -VNA