HANOI, April 14 (Xinhua) -- "When I was a freshman at university I used to think that I would graduate and find a job working 40-hours-a-week and enjoying weekends with my family and my life would continue in that way," Nguyen Duc Tien, chief technology officer (CTO) of MCG Technology Solutions Consulting Joint Stock Company, told Xinhua.
Tien, who was born in 1991, started to have second thoughts about his career when he was a third-year university student. He started to think that becoming an office worker was not his dream and began craving something new and challenging like creating his own software start-up.
As an information technology student, Tien joined other school friends who shared the same dream of running their own companies.
"We cooperated with the MCG, which has around 15-20 years of experience in human resources, to form MCG Technology, which is specialized in computerized and digitalized consultancy services and network administration," Tien told Xinhua in Hanoi.
Months later, Tien's company has reached out to many potential customers who have given positive feedback.
"I hope in the coming time, we can continue to receive feedback from customers and upgrade our products to be more suitable to our customers' demands," said Tien.
It seems that for the young entrepreneur the sky is the limit as he has also earned support from his parents and friends.
"My parents are fully convinced of my abilities as I worked to pay for university. They are happily getting used to the idea of my start-up, instead of me being an employee," Tien said proudly.
According to a report released by the Global Entrepreneurial Monitor (GEM), about 57 percent of Vietnamese think there are good opportunities to start a business here, while 73 percent consider entrepreneurship a good career choice.
The start-up frenzy started in Vietnam around two years ago when the Vietnamese government called for more investment in the community and demonstrated its political will with several pragmatic moves.
The biggest move was the approval last year of the "Supporting the National Innovation Start-up Ecosystem by 2025" scheme, which would pour an estimated two trillion Vietnamese dong (88.5 million U.S. dollars) into around 2,000 local hi-tech start-ups.
In a related move, in January, Hanoi People's Committee officially opened the Hanoi Innovative Business Incubator of Information Technology (HBI-IT), while Ho Chi Minh City Start-up and Innovation Fund (HSIF) was set up last summer. The fund aims to raise 100 billion Vietnamese dong (4.42 million U.S. dollars) by 2020 to support local businesses founded by any entrepreneur aged under 35.
Universities did not lag behind and wasted no time in establishing start-up centers and encouraging students to take part in entrepreneurship competitions.
However, with Confucianism running deep in its veins, there is a deeply-ingrained culture of saving face in the minds of Vietnamese people, and nobody wants to be thought of as a failure and this stigma holds particularly true for the older generations.
Not all parents have confidence in their children or willingly support their "risky and vague" career prospects. Le Duc Binh, co-founder of WeFit, another technology start-up in Vietnam, shared his difficulties with Xinhua.
"I'm still trying to gradually persuade my parents that my start-up business will be a success," said Binh, 26.
Binh is a co-founder of the newly-launched Wefit app, which has been developed for health clubs, sport clubs, gyms and trainers. The app looks great on smart phones, tablets as well as laptops and desktop displays, providing solutions for customers to participate in unlimited sports and activities including yoga, zumba, boxing and working out among others, in hundreds of fitness clubs across the city with an affordable monthly fee.
"I have been dreaming of opening my own business since I was a kid," Binh recalled. After working on two products connected to online English teaching, Binh began his own business.
"I choose to make a fitness app as modern people are paying more attention to health issues. Moreover, the fitness sector is cutting-edge to me and I can challenge myself when working on it," said the young man.
After six months of hard work, Binh's app officially launched to local media in March. Recalling the period, Binh said "My team and I had to work more than 12 hour-days before the launch."
But the hardship paid off. Binh's app was well-received by its users, which is the most important motivation for him to continue on his entrepreneurial path.
"Sometimes, I had to ride on my bike, put on helmet and deliver the product to customers on sunny and rainy days. Sometimes, I was so busy I had no time to meet my girlfriend," Binh told Xinhua.
However, the youngster never thought about giving up. Binh and his colleagues are now managing a system of 200 sports clubs in Hanoi and over 100 in southern Ho Chi Minh city linked with his app.
He is expected to further promote the app through social media and press in the coming time.
According to the latest report of the General Statistics Office, Vietnam saw the highest number of newly-established businesses over the last six years, in the first quarter of 2017.
In a related move, in early April, Vietnam's state-run television VTV and Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union announced a new TV program titled "Startup Nation," which is expected to promote start-ups in Vietnam.
The talk show format will air nationwide every Friday evening from April 14 and rebroadcast on Saturday afternoons, while another program titled "Startup Coffee" will air from April 10 every morning.
VTV Director General Tran Binh Minh said the program producers wanted to deliver a message about startups, which is "Innovation is continuous and enduring. It's not just a movement, but a path for the nation to follow."
