The HCM City Institute for Development Studies (HIDS) and the Institute of Startup Success on Saturday signed an agreement to conduct research and organise start-up training programmes in the 2018-23 period.
Hang Nhat Quang, director of the HCM City branch of the Institute of Startup Success, said that starting a business was never easy, and that nine out of 10 new startups have to close or declare bankruptcy in one to three years.
Problems facing startups include lack of business knowledge and strategies, or poorly researched strategies, he said.
With the current business environment, mapping and implementing a business strategy consistently is vital for success of start-ups.
Dang Duc Thanh, director of the Institute for Start-up Success and deputy chairman of the Advisory Council for Start-ups and Enterprise Development in Ben Tre Province, said to succeed, business executives should have a strategic mindset and be able to predict customer and market trends and demand.
Many businesses operating in the same market succeed but others fail. Those that succeed have identified market trends and the development potential of business sectors, he said.
Thousands of new enterprises are set up each year, but only about 10 per cent of them survive, he said. “If we want to start a business, we have to learn how to start it first.”
Professor Nguyen Van Trinh, HIDS deputy director, said his institute had organised many training courses for the local business community to help them adjust to a fast-changing environment, but the number of business executives participating in such courses was modest, and most businesses sent staff to attend the courses.
Through cooperation with the Institute of Startup Success, HIDS expects to expand business support programmes and create a robust environment for young people to develop start-ups, especially in the technology sector.
The aim is to upgrade the position of Viet Nam in the region and world as well as enable the city to have 500,000 businesses by 2020, according to Trinh. — VNS