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