His Excellency Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, and his delegation visited Singapore Management University (SMU) on 27 April 2018 to learn more about SMU’s startup environment and to witness the signing of two Memoranda of Understanding

Prime Minister Phuc started with a tour of SMU’s Incubator, the Business Innovations Generator (BIG), led by Professor Gerard George, Dean of the SMU Lee Kong Chian School of Business. Home to a unique ecosystem of mentors and budding startups since 2009, BIG has served to accelerate the growth of startups such as regional media company Tech in Asia, as well as Rainmaker Labs, which was recently acquired by KPMG.

Prime Minister Phuc was introduced to the Vietnamese founders of BIG startups, Wellderly and Regit. Mr Tong Duong, a graduate from SMU School of Information Systems and the co-founder and CEO of Wellderly, shared the experience he had with his first SMU BIG supported startup, Homage, and how SMU’s startup culture and ecosystem helped the company to grow. He detailed how this initial experience has led him to mature as a founder, increasing the potential success of Wellderly, his current startup that uses blockchain to coordinate elderly care, which is also incubated by BIG.

Prime Minister Phuc and his delegation then proceeded up to the Ngee Ann Kongsi Auditorium for the signing of two Memoranda of Understanding, which was attended by about 280 students, business leaders and government officials from Singapore and Vietnam.

Caption: The first MOU was signed by Professor Nguyen Dong Phong (left), President of UEH, Professor Arnoud De Meyer (centre), President of SMU, and Mr Don Lam (right), CEO & co-founder of Vina Capital and Chair of SMU’s International Advisory Council in Vietnam.

The first Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between SMU, the University of Economics in Ho Chi Minh City (UEH) and Vina Capital on establishing a joint incubator at UEH. The collaboration intends to pave the way for the parties to collaborate and find synergies in supporting entrepreneurial students and start-ups based in both countries to connect to new networks, partners, and overseas markets.

Caption: The second MOU was signed by Professor Nguyen Dong Phong (left), President of UEH, Professor Arnoud De Meyer (centre), President of SMU, Mr Truong Gia Binh (right), Chairman of PSDC.

The second MOU was signed between SMU, UEH and the Vietnamese Government’s Private Sector Development Committee (PSDC) on preparing a joint report to provide recommendations for the growth of Vietnam’s innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem based on Singapore’s experiences.

In his welcome speech, SMU President Professor Arnoud De Meyer highlighted the merits of SMU and UEH working together, “This Joint Institute will allow us to learn from one another, and combine our expertise to offer training courses to the Vietnamese business community, and accelerate the growth of startups in or expanding into, the Vietnam market.” He added that “With SMU and UEH partnering together, we will be even greater than the sum of our parts and have the potential to make a large joint impact in Vietnam and across Southeast Asia.”

Caption: Prime Minister Phuc was impressed with the holistic support provided by SMU’s Business Innovations Generator to the startups it incubates.

Prime Minister Phuc then delivered a speech in which he praised SMU’s BIG for the holistic support the incubator is offering its startups. He expressed the hope that the partnership will pave the way for Vietnamese startups to follow in Singapore’s footsteps by turning their ideas into viable businesses, thereby elevating and strengthening Vietnam’s startup ecosystem.

Issuing an open invitation to all startups in Singapore to visit Vietnam for its annual Tech Fest, Prime Minister Phuc added, “The incubator [in UEH] will become a training ground for supporting the students, who are the essential human resource with a lot of ideas, with new initiatives. [The students] are the key resource in Vietnam and for startups in Vietnam, Singapore and in the future.”

Featured photo: Cindy Nguyen (right), co-founder of Regit, shared her startup journey with Prime Minister Phuc (centre). On the left is Professor Gerard George, Dean of the SMU Lee Kong Chian School of Business.