A technician checks the quality of vegetables at Hachi, a Vietnamese high-tech agriculture startup (Photo: hachi.com.vn)Hanoi (VNS/VNA) -The spirit of entrepreneurship is key to the development of startup businessesin Southeast Asia and for Vietnamese startups in particular, according to DinhThi Quynh Van, General Director of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Vietnam.
The top manager of theinternational UK-based auditor told Vietnam News Agency on the sidelines of theWorld Economic Forum on ASEAN (WEF ASEAN 2018) that entrepreneurs should beencouraged to think, develop and implement new ideas as well as apply newtechnologies in their businesses.
“It’s good to know their spiritis having good impacts on other local firms as they are bringing innovation tothe Vietnamese business community, while there is barely any data on theircontributions to the country’s economic growth,” Van said.
But there are three problems forlocal companies, which are science-technology application, investment inscience-technology-human development and corporate governance, according to Van.
“Local firms have fallen behindthe world as the three factors have resulted in low quality of products, lowproduction capacity and high goods prices, making Vietnamese firms lesscompetitive in the international market.”
“Whoever wants to succeed mustspend on the three factors – technology, human and governance – and this hasremained a difficult topic for every local company because their priority atthe moment is how to improve their core business activities.”
Leaders of tech startups andventure capital (VC) firms in SoutheastAsia shared her view over regional startups.
Tan Hooi Ling, Co-Founder of theSingaporean platform-based transportation firm Grab, told a panel discussionduring the WEF ASEAN 2018 last week that the success of a startup depends onwhether its founder knew how to have good people to discuss and debate whilemaking mistakes and fixing them in the startup’s early stage.
Startup businesses should spendmoney on developing their products and staff, try to move the business ahead ofglobal trends and implement an ideal business model, Tan said.
Regarding technologicaladvancements, Facebook’s vice president of public policy in Asia, Simon Milner,said startups were only able to grow in the US wherethere was an ideal ecosystem for them.
But as the world had undergonesignificant technological development, young people became able to follow theirdreams and brilliant ideas, and there were plenty of opportunities to growideas into businesses, he said.
The case of Facebook, starting asa social network inside a university in 2004, proved there were plentifulopportunities for startups to enter the market, especially those in the SoutheastAsia region, where people were eager to learn new things,Milner added.
Optimism about the ASEAN startupcommunity was also affirmed by other panelists.
Edward Thai, partner of theUS-based early-stage venture 500 Startups, said he felt pessimistic about thefuture of Vietnam’s startup community back in 2001, but now he’d turnedoptimistic.
Major driving factors for thedevelopment of ASEAN startups were macroeconomic growth and internet access,which is higher than in some regions of the world, he said.
What startups had to face inASEAN were the differences in each country’s environment and culture, Tháisaid, adding that the regional and international integration had helpeddiminish those differences across the border.
Vietnamese people, for example,were getting used to the fact that young graduates would choose to go out andset up their own careers rather than working for big corporations, he said.
Another factor that had supportedlocal startups was the Government’s desire and determination to turn the countryinto a startup nation, so it was getting easier for young people than yearsago, Edward said.
According to Shailendra Singh,managing director of the Singapore-based Sequoia Capital, there was increasingaccessibility to the capital market and more opportunities are arising in the SoutheastAsia, so pessimism shouldn’t be part of the vocabulary ofentrepreneurs.
“Founders do magical things fromnothing” even when “the world around them may show no hope,” he said, addingthat students should drive themselves to become founders and entrepreneurs,building something from open sources with limited capital.-VNS/VNA
The top manager of theinternational UK-based auditor told Vietnam News Agency on the sidelines of theWorld Economic Forum on ASEAN (WEF ASEAN 2018) that entrepreneurs should beencouraged to think, develop and implement new ideas as well as apply newtechnologies in their businesses.
“It’s good to know their spiritis having good impacts on other local firms as they are bringing innovation tothe Vietnamese business community, while there is barely any data on theircontributions to the country’s economic growth,” Van said.
But there are three problems forlocal companies, which are science-technology application, investment inscience-technology-human development and corporate governance, according to Van.
“Local firms have fallen behindthe world as the three factors have resulted in low quality of products, lowproduction capacity and high goods prices, making Vietnamese firms lesscompetitive in the international market.”
“Whoever wants to succeed mustspend on the three factors – technology, human and governance – and this hasremained a difficult topic for every local company because their priority atthe moment is how to improve their core business activities.”
Leaders of tech startups andventure capital (VC) firms in SoutheastAsia shared her view over regional startups.
Tan Hooi Ling, Co-Founder of theSingaporean platform-based transportation firm Grab, told a panel discussionduring the WEF ASEAN 2018 last week that the success of a startup depends onwhether its founder knew how to have good people to discuss and debate whilemaking mistakes and fixing them in the startup’s early stage.
Startup businesses should spendmoney on developing their products and staff, try to move the business ahead ofglobal trends and implement an ideal business model, Tan said.
Regarding technologicaladvancements, Facebook’s vice president of public policy in Asia, Simon Milner,said startups were only able to grow in the US wherethere was an ideal ecosystem for them.
But as the world had undergonesignificant technological development, young people became able to follow theirdreams and brilliant ideas, and there were plenty of opportunities to growideas into businesses, he said.
The case of Facebook, starting asa social network inside a university in 2004, proved there were plentifulopportunities for startups to enter the market, especially those in the SoutheastAsia region, where people were eager to learn new things,Milner added.
Optimism about the ASEAN startupcommunity was also affirmed by other panelists.
Edward Thai, partner of theUS-based early-stage venture 500 Startups, said he felt pessimistic about thefuture of Vietnam’s startup community back in 2001, but now he’d turnedoptimistic.
Major driving factors for thedevelopment of ASEAN startups were macroeconomic growth and internet access,which is higher than in some regions of the world, he said.
What startups had to face inASEAN were the differences in each country’s environment and culture, Tháisaid, adding that the regional and international integration had helpeddiminish those differences across the border.
Vietnamese people, for example,were getting used to the fact that young graduates would choose to go out andset up their own careers rather than working for big corporations, he said.
Another factor that had supportedlocal startups was the Government’s desire and determination to turn the countryinto a startup nation, so it was getting easier for young people than yearsago, Edward said.
According to Shailendra Singh,managing director of the Singapore-based Sequoia Capital, there was increasingaccessibility to the capital market and more opportunities are arising in the SoutheastAsia, so pessimism shouldn’t be part of the vocabulary ofentrepreneurs.
“Founders do magical things fromnothing” even when “the world around them may show no hope,” he said, addingthat students should drive themselves to become founders and entrepreneurs,building something from open sources with limited capital.-VNS/VNA
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