Illustrative image Hanoi (VNA) – The newswire techwireasia.com on June16 ran an article saying that Vietnam has been steadily growing its highly promising digital economy, presenting multiple opportunities for investors, startups, and businesses alike.
Theauthor wrote that in recent years, the Southeast Asian region has been seeingrapid and sustained efforts and investment into various digital economyinitiatives by both the public and private sectors. Tech giants havebeen creating waves, most recently the Tokopedia-Gojek merger, and earlier, Grab pushing for a US listing with a valuation of over 40 billion USD.
Estimatesby Google, Temasek, and Bain & Co predicted that the Vietnamese sectorcould grow to 52 billion USDby 2025, which comes up to about a sixth of the massive 300 billion USDregional digital economy pie.
According to the article, backed by a stable political climate, progressive economic policies, and sustained growth, a lucrative opportunity exists for both localplayers and investors alike to tap into the country’s potential for economicgreatness.
Opportunitiesinclude e-commerce services, digital finance, online gaming, andtech-enabled services to power Industry 4.0 progress. Like its ASEAN peers, a majority of Vietnamese residentsremain underbanked, making digital financial services a highly attractive option for loans and payments.
In 2015,the Vietnamese Government announced a ten-year plan for a broad digital transformation of the country, with an ambitiousplan to produce 10 startup unicorns valued at over 1 billion USD apiece by2030.
Aimingto incorporate at least 10 percent of digital adoption across all sectors andInternet penetration of 80 percent for all households, the plan appears to beon track.
SoutheastAsia’s largest unicorn, Grab, has been investing heavily in accelerators for startupsaround the region from as early as 2018. Collaborating with both private and public players, Grab has beenattracting startups intending to scale via mentorship opportunities, access toGrab’s customer bases, and even potential direct investment.
In 2020,the decacorn (startups valued over 10 billion USD) recognised the potential ofVietnam’s digital economy and launched an accelerator for early-stage startups. Under their Grab Ventures Ignite accelerator program, five winners emerged, who won over 1 million USD in investment and in-kind prizes from Grab and its programmepartners. They span the breadth of fields such as retail,insurance, logistics, and communications, the article said./.
