The Hanoi People’s Committee announced the establishment of the Hanoi Innovation Center Joint Stock Company (Hanoi Innovation Center JSC) on February 26.
The Center is envisioned as a catalyst to help Hanoi attract global talent, capital, technology, and expertise. It also aims to provide a platform for young Vietnamese founders to grow, laying the foundation for sustainable growth in the medium and long term.
Speaking at the event, Vice Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee, Mr. Truong Viet Dung, asserted that “The establishment of the Hanoi Innovation Center JSC is not merely about adding another unit or launching an administrative project. We are creating a ‘State-oriented, Enterprise-run’ model, shifting from a policy-based approach to a market-driven one, centered on two major breakthroughs.”
The first breakthrough is the organizational structure. For the first time, Hanoi has designed an innovation body as a joint-stock company with state capital, yet it operates entirely under modern corporate governance standards: financial transparency, risk control, and accountability to shareholders and the law. While the State holds a 70% stake, this ownership is not intended for the micro-management of business operations but to ensure the company serves the overarching development goals of the capital city.
This also marks a fundamental shift from an administrative grant-based mechanism to a co-investment and risk-sharing model; from fragmented support to ecosystem coordination; and from a startup "movement" to an organized, standardized value chain measured by tangible results.
“Only when innovation is placed within a clear, disciplined, and accountable market structure can it truly become a new productive force for the Capital,” Mr. Dung said.
The second breakthrough lies in the operational method: the company is designed as a centralized hub to coordinate the innovation ecosystem, replacing the previous model of dispersed support.
Instead of individual departments and localities implementing disjointed and unlinked programs, the company and its innovation network will reorganize the flow of innovation according to market logic. This involves bringing urban development challenges closer to the research capabilities of institutes and universities, connecting startups with investors and markets, and pairing technological initiatives with controlled testing mechanisms (sandboxes).
Mr. Dung believes that when these components are integrated into a unified structure, innovation will no longer be a mere slogan or movement. Instead, it will become a standardized value chain, evaluated by results and driven toward successful commercialization.
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