“More and more foreign investors are coming to Vietnam, but they are unable to catch up with the nature of the new emerging market with its unstable politics,” said Le Hai Binh, vp of the Vietnam E-Commerce Association, on the Vietnam Startup Forum conference.
The forum took place during Global Entrepreneurship Week – an event celebrated in over 160 countries by 10 million people.
“Vietnamese start-ups should be confident that they will be able to compete with foreign companies on their home turf,” Binh said.
Huynh Viet Phuong, head of Vietnam Internet’s representative office in HCM City, said: “Our advantage is the challenges faced by foreign investors. This is the strength of a Vietnamese startup and you don’t have to worry about their money or experience.”
But Phuong also suggested that startups should control the standard of their products, know who their customers are and mustn’t do business in a rush.
“About 95 percent of startups in Silicon Valley failed because they did not have the right direction for development,” said Lucy Keoni, an American startup expert.
She emphasized the role of investors and trainers in advising startup owners and employees.
“The same applies to Vietnamese start-ups. Before starting a business, a development path must be mapped out,” Binh added
Huynh Ngoc Duy, CEO of Mat Bao JSC, said: “Vietnamese startups don’t dare to share their ideas because they’re afraid of theft, but this just isn’t entirely true.”
“Global startups often have their own community where they can share ideas because if you discuss one idea from different aspects with many people, you can learn something and avoid mistakes,” he added.
“The Vietnamese government has paid numerous attention to the event of the business community, especially startups. 600,000 enterprises and 4 million households contribute to economic development,” said Vo Tan Thanh, vp of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
By 2020, Vietnam plans to have not less than 1 million enterprises, with the private economic sector contributing 45-50% of GDP.
“VCCI is proud to be the 13th partner of the Global Entrepreneurship Network and we strive to implement many projects to encourage start-ups across the country,” he added.
Corporate social responsibility
At the VCCI forum, it spoke about corporate social responsibility policy.
Le Thi Thu Thuy, deputy director of the Center for the Promotion of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises at VCCI, said: “Global Entrepreneurship Week is a fantastic opportunity for a lot of participants to develop local and international business networks and learn from peers.
“We want to show these start-ups that corporate social responsibility policies, such as zero tolerance towards endangered wildlife consumption, can attract new business and foreign investment. Vietnamese e-commerce companies have a unique opportunity to be leaders in curbing wildlife trade,” she said.
TRAFFIC research has identified e-commerce as a crucial area to concentrate on to scale back wildlife trade. The Vietnamese Startups Forum is a key technique to reach corporations entering the sector.
In June, TRAFFIC conducted a 23-day rapid assessment of eight of the preferred e-commerce sites in Vietnam to find out the prevalence of online wildlife sales. For half-hour every day, TRAFFIC looked for wildlife products, from birds and lizards to rhino horn and ivory.
During the assessment, TRAFFIC found 180 wildlife advertisements, of which 64 percent advertised illegal goods.
“TRAFFIC’s rapid assessment suggests that e-commerce websites are a low-risk channel for supplying illegal wildlife products to consumers,” said Madelon Willemsen, head of TRAFFIC in Vietnam.
“As the e-commerce market in Vietnam develops, we’d like to closely monitor activity on this sector and have interaction businesses in motion against illegal wildlife trade.
“Through TRAFFIC’s partnership with civil society organizations such as VCCI, we encourage the business community, including the e-commerce sector, to adopt corporate social responsibility policies that reduce the illegal trade and consumption of wildlife,” she added. — VNS
