Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh: Inspiring and inspiring students to start a business

Opening his speech, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized: “Startups and innovation are an important driving force and resource in the sustainable development of each country; to have startups and innovation, there must be innovative people; startups require passion, determination, perseverance and courage to overcome difficulties and challenges to achieve success”.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh speaks at the festival

Addressing the delegates, teachers and students, the Prime Minister reminded: Looking back at the history of the Vietnamese Revolution, with the viewpoint of "rich people, strong country", the spirit of entrepreneurship was mentioned by beloved Uncle Ho very early; in the Letter to the Vietnamese Industrial and Commercial Association on October 13, 1945, Uncle Ho wrote: "A prosperous national economy means that the businesses of industrialists and merchants are prosperous". Imbued with his ideology, in recent years, the Party and State have paid special attention, issued and effectively implemented many policies and guidelines to support and encourage entrepreneurship and innovation.

According to the Prime Minister, in recent years, the startup movement has spread widely, from cities to rural areas and to remote areas, border areas, islands, and ethnic minority areas. The entrepreneurial spirit and the desire to start a business have flourished in most classes and generations of people, especially among the young. To foster the entrepreneurial spirit and create a favorable environment to support students in forming and realizing startup ideas and projects, the Prime Minister approved the Project "Supporting students to start a business until 2025" by Decision No. 1665/QD-TTg dated October 30, 2017 (Project 1665).

On behalf of the Government, the Prime Minister acknowledged, highly appreciated and commended the positive results of start-ups and innovation among Vietnamese students and youth in recent times, contributing to the overall success of the country. At the same time, he welcomed the Ministry of Education and Training for focusing on directing the successful organization of the National Start-up Festival for students every year, from 2018 to present.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and leaders perform the opening ceremony of SV.Startup

The Prime Minister also pointed out that, in addition to the basic achievements, the startup ecosystem still has limitations and shortcomings. The startup ecosystem in general and the startup ecosystem in educational institutions in particular are still limited and lack cohesion; there is still a gap compared to other countries in the region and the world. The implementation of startup support policies for students is still slow. Incubation and startup activities in higher education institutions have not gone into depth; the system of facilities and laboratories is not adequate. Many components of the ecosystem are not really strong enough. The mechanism of ordering and assigning tasks to local educational and training institutions is still quite cautious; the implementation of projects is still modest and has low impact.

Regarding the orientation, goals, tasks and key solutions for the coming time, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized: We are living in an era of globalization and increasingly deep international integration, especially the Fourth Industrial Revolution which is strongly impacting all areas of social life, all countries and regions. In a world that is constantly changing with breakthrough achievements in science and technology, many emerging industries and fields are attracting global attention and investment such as semiconductor chips, artificial intelligence (AI), hydrogen, etc. This is a challenge, but also an opportunity when we exploit well the different potentials, outstanding opportunities, competitive advantages of the country, of each industry, field, region, locality and of our people, especially the young generation.

In order for student start-up activities to develop dramatically and truly become a widespread movement across the country, there needs to be a strong participation of the entire political system; support from the people and businesses; with specific, appropriate, practical and effective support mechanisms, policies and solutions both in the short and long term.

“With the tradition of patriotism, with the thousand-year history of our nation; with a young generation full of enthusiasm, dynamism and creativity today, we believe that the passions, dreams, ambitions and aspirations of the youth will continue to be nurtured, take flight and become reality, so that our country will have truly diligent and talented owners, always living, studying, working and dedicating themselves, contributing to building Vietnam to be increasingly strong and prosperous; the Vietnamese people will be increasingly prosperous and happy; and soon realize the mission of bringing the Vietnamese nation to the stage of glory, standing shoulder to shoulder with the great powers of the five continents, as beloved Uncle Ho always wished,” Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh confided.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh requested the Ministry of Education and Training, together with all levels, sectors and localities, to focus on implementing drastically, synchronously and effectively "1 Promote; 2 Strengthen; 3 Connect; 4 Focus; 5 Encourage":

“1 Promote”: Promote the effective implementation of current policies; at the same time, promptly review, amend and supplement appropriate mechanisms and policies, creating a favorable environment, conditions and legal basis for youth and students to start businesses and innovate.

“2 Strengthening” includes: Strengthening the connection between universities, colleges and research centers with full modern equipment to help students research, create sample products, and create connections between professional groups through the support of staff, lecturers and coordinators.

Strengthen the mobilization and effective use of resources to promote start-ups and innovation among students. Allocate resources reasonably among relevant ministries and sectors in implementing start-up activities. Be careful to avoid the situation where some ministries take on too much work and too much budget, while others do not have the resources and budget to implement.

“3 Connections”: Connecting Student Startup Support Centers in universities and vocational training institutions with Startup Centers in localities, forming a national startup connection network. Requesting timely guidance for universities and vocational training institutions to exploit available infrastructure and equipment at innovation startup support centers. Connecting schools and businesses in promoting innovative startups. Connecting localities with universities in ordering and assigning tasks to develop startup projects in the spirit of solving practical problems of localities. Connecting startup education from high school to higher education levels into consistent content and programs.

“4 Focuses” include: Focusing on improving the spirit of innovation in the education sector, among managers, staff, teachers, and students. Innovating from thinking and doing to content, programs, and teaching methods. Focusing on proposing, forming, and developing centers to support innovative startups in universities and vocational training institutions. Focusing on proposing the construction of a trading floor for ideas and startup projects of students, young people, and businesses. Having a mechanism to ensure that project ideas are protected to avoid copyright loss. Focusing on resolving outstanding issues, noting:

Early completion of promoting the development of incubation and startup support centers in training institutions; early completion of promulgation of guidelines for establishing student startup support funds in higher education institutions, vocational education institutions, community funds, and donation funds. Localities should soon pilot the development of guidelines for creating ordering mechanisms and assigning tasks to educational and training institutions to implement startup models and livelihood models, contributing to promoting socio-economic development in regions, localities, and the whole country.

“5 Encouragements” include: Encouraging businesses and agencies to use products created from startup projects. Encouraging businesses to coordinate and support educational institutions in implementing career and employment counseling and startup support. Encouraging businesses to build shared experiential spaces and startup creative spaces for educational institutions, combining learning with practice, avoiding the situation of experiential learning without content and methods, reducing the effectiveness of career and employment counseling. Encouraging students and lecturers to actively participate in startup activities and to promote the commercialization of research products. Encouraging lecturers, staff, and youth union members to actively innovate, have new ways of thinking, new ways of doing; participating in innovative startup activities, and community support activities.

VINH TUONG

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/thu-tuong-pham-minh-chinh-truyen-cam-hung-khat-vong-khoi-nghiep-cho-hoc-sinh-sinh-vien-post739483.html