Viet Nam to launch start-ups stock exchange

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Huệ told a workshop on capital market development for start-ups at the HCM Stock Exchange (HoSE) yesterday that he expected such an exchange to be established within the next two to three years.

Huệ said he knew how start-ups faced difficulties in raising capital for their businesses. Most banks were afraid of the high risk involved in lending money to a company that is just starting out. Thus, most startups have had to depend on capital from the owners' friends, families or the general public and from private investment funds, which also involves navigating many obstacles.

The deputy PM said the exchange would meet the capital needs of start-ups, but it would require plenty of research and a clear roadmap, with a thorough evaluation of institutions and the mechanisms of activities to avoid creating an ineffective exchange.

Huệ hoped the stock exchange would easily attract investments.

The deputy PM expects to see 1 million active businesses by 2020, up from the current 900,000 registered businesses, where only some 528,000 are active. Thus, he said, start-ups were a key factor in business development.

"The government is striving to make Việt Nam a start-up-friendly country," Huệ said, adding that it needed to become a partner and an initial caretaker for companies in their early stages.

At the workshop, Hà Huy Tuấn, deputy chairman of the National Finance Supervision Committee, said the establishment of the trading platform for start-ups was new to not only Việt Nam but also many other countries.

Tuấn added that so far, Korea was one of the experts in the field, with the first start-up exchange that was launched in 2013. It now has 88 start-ups listed on the new exchange, a threefold increase from its launch.

Therefore, a study on start-up exchanges is essential and urgently required to boost the Vietnamese start-ups in particular and the local economy in general.

However, Tuấn emphasised that the government was still in the early stages of considering this move. The National Finance Supervision Committee and the State Securities Commission as well as other agencies are still discussing the issue.