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Vietnam spending $400K to build own Silicon Valley for startups

Under the government-run project Silicon Valley Vietnam, two accelerators will be set up: one in Hanoi and another in Ho Chi Minh city. This is part of plans to groom startups and eventually link them up with venture capital.
Written by Ryan Huang, Contributor

Vietnam has launched a project to emulate a Silicon Valley environment to grow its startup ecosystem.

The plan will start with two accelerators set up in two of the country's largest cities: Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city, according to Tech In Asia. It added the project will start with US$400,000, which will be allocated toward incubation, acceleration, seed funding, and eventual exits.

svv
(source: siliconvalley.com.vn)

The project dubbed Silicon Valley Vietnam (SVV), is aimed at creating an ecosystem for the matching up of innovations and capital, said Vinh Q Tran, special advisor to the Ministry of Science and Technology, during a presentation earlier this month at the opening ceremony.

"The Vietnam economy is no longer a tiger, but a pussycat. In the longer term, it remains weak." 
Vinh Q Tran,
Special advisor to Ministry of Science and Technology

"Vietnam has to do this SVV project to stimulate growth of startups. Because the Vietnam economy is no longer a tiger, but a pussycat. In the longer term, it remains weak," he said.

Vinh Tran explained the business reality for Vietnamese startups was not as simple compared with America's, as there was often a gap between an entrepreneur's idea, and its execution plan and marketing to investors.

"As a result of this reality, SVV develops a number of strategies to bring the Silicon Valley Model to Vietnam. These strategies are designed to provide entrepreneurship development and mentoring to the startup founders," said Vinh Tran.

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