More than 500 start-up projects have been launched in HCM City over the first six months of this year, reported a recent conference of the municipal Party Committee.

In the first half of 2017, HCM City provided support in terms of finance, administrative procedures, technologies and training for 439 start-up projects and 76 accelerated start-up projects.

Le Thanh Liem, vice chairman of the municipal People’s Committee, said that the city aimed to have 500,000 enterprises by 2020. The city was focusing on innovations and start-ups in order to improve the quality of its economic growth.

There are 13 venture investment funds connected with the city to aid local startups, Liem added.

The southern economic hub has also issued regulations to support start-ups, rolled out plans to complete the start-up ecosystem and assisted small-and medium-sized enterprises.

At the conference, HCM City’s Young Businesspeople Association said it would support 1,000 start-up projects during 2016-20. — VNS