The first science and technology incubator in Vietnam was established in 2003. After more than 10 years, there are now only about 10 incubators in this field but they have not operated as well as expected according to the evaluation of many experts of science and technology incubators activities in Vietnam nowadays.

In many countries, science and technology incubators are the lever to set up high-tech enterprises. The development of this model in regional countries and territories such as the Republic of Korea, Chinese Taipei and Singapore has created favorable conditions to help firms start their businesses successfully. In Vietnam, activities of science and technology incubators have created initial positive changes in terms of providing support services to businesses and promoting coordination among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and between SMEs and their domestic and foreign partners, contributing to improved abilities and competitiveness in Vietnamese high-tech enterprises. 

Despite the positive results, the quality of operations by many science and technology incubators has not been as good as expected, and some even had to halt operations.

According to Vu Tuan Anh from the National Agency for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Development under the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), most incubators are administrative agencies under the state management while the involvement of private enterprises remains restricted. Almost every incubator faces financial difficulties (excluding some with international aid), lack skillful human resources and have not received support policies from the state.

In these circumstances, MOST implemented the Innovation and Development of Business Incubators Policy Project (BIPP) sponsored by the Belgian government with a total budget of four million euros under the Vietnam-Belgium cooperation program in 2011-2015.

Deputy Director of the BIPP project’s management board Do Viet Trung said the project will be implemented from 2015 to 2019 to support MOST in creating a good environment for small and medium-sized science and technology enterprises based on a more complete legal framework for the establishment and operation of business incubators.

It consists of four main components, including consolidating the legal framework to support business incubators in Vietnam; piloting two incubators in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City; running the Innofund fund to support incubation activities; monitoring and evaluating results of the project. “The BIPP project is expected to contribute to Vietnam’s socioeconomic development strategy and economic growth thanks to the strong force of science and technology enterprises,” Trung stressed.

Apart from expectations from the BIPP project, many experts also warned that the state and enterprises need to have close connections to increase the quality of business incubators. In addition, the call for investment from various sectors also has great significance in the current circumstance.

Head of the National Agency for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Development Pham Hong Quat said, “the state needs to adopt policies to encourage investment from the private sector in the development of business incubators; encourage science and technology enterprises to extract about 10 percent of their revenues to set up scientific and technological development funds; permit science and technology enterprises to coordinate with institutes, universities to raise funds and make it a reciprocal source of capital along with the state budget when conducting scientific and technological projects; improve the efficiency of the incubators to attract more investment; and strengthen cooperation between the incubators and domestic, international funds.”