Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attended the Innovate Vietnam 2024, an event marking the fifth anniversary of the National Innovation Centre (NIC), which opened at the NIC headquarters at the Hoa Lac High-tech Park in Hanoi on October 1.

During the two-day event, many workshops and forums will be held, focusing on key topics such as entrepreneurs and the young generation of Vietnam with AI wave and the semiconductor industry; innovation and startups at Vietnamese tertiary education; job opportunities from new technologies; and international cooperation in developing human resources for the semiconductor industry.

Addressing the event, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said Vietnam has around 4,000 innovative startups, 208 investment funds, 84 incubators, 35 business promotion organizations and 20 innovative startup centers.

Vietnam’s startup ecosystem ranked 56th out of 100 countries and Hanoi and HCM City are among the top 200 innovative startup cities worldwide, according to the PM.

The country's Global Innovation Index (GII)  has continuously climbed up, from the 59th position in 2016 to the 44th in 2024.

Vietnam was ranked 71st among 193 countries in the 2024 edition of the United Nations (UN) E-Government Survey – Accelerating Digital Transformation for Sustainable Development.

The PM stressed that innovation must be a strategic choice, an objective requirement, a key task, and the top priority for driving industrialization, modernization, and sustainable development.

Innovation should prioritize people and businesses as the center, subject, goal, motivation, and primary resource, especially the younger generation – the future owners of the country, he said.

He proposed some key tasks in the coming time to further boost innovation, including the completion of mechanisms and policies to encourage businesses to invest in science and technology and innovation; enhancing investment in developing infrastructure system, particularly transport, energy, digital, telecommunications and data infrastructure; developing high-quality human resources; promoting investment attraction, particularly in research and development of such fields as AI, semiconductor and green energy; strengthening national administration efficiency; and promoting international cooperation.

On this occasion, the PM decided to choose October 1 as the annual Innovation Day of Vietnam with the aim of encouraging and promoting innovation.

The NIC was established by the Government on October 2, 2019, aiming at promoting the innovation ecosystem in Vietnam and helping the nation grasp opportunities from the fourth industrial revolution to make breakthrough development.