Beach hub to accelerate technology start-up innovation

Thursday, Aug 20, 2026 11:04

Deputy Minister of Science and Technology, Hoàng Minh, urged the city to create an attractive living and working environment as well as favorable flexible policies in luring global venture capitals and joining the world value chain.

Start-up groups at the Đà Nẵng Innovation Startup Festival in Đà Nẵng City. More than 3,000 visitors registered at the festival which featured 150 start-up projects and businesses. — VNS Photos Công Thành

ĐÀ NẴNG – Đà Nẵng City and its partners have signed five Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) in building global and regional innovation and start-up connections, at the Đà Nẵng Innovation Startup Festival, SURF 2026, on Wednesday.

Two businesses – EM&AI Company and Mien Trung Industrial Machinery Manufacturing – have been given a total fund of VNĐ893 million (US$34,000) for the development of converting low-frequency, noisy calls into accurate text research and a CNC milling machine investment as part of the city’s supporting innovated enterprises programme.

The city also presented awards to 20 out of 67 projects developed by universities’ student groups and businesses in digital transformation, AI-based marketing tools, circular waste treatment, smart aquatic farming, renewable energy, electronic medical record chat-to-text and AI-driven English learning platform.

Võ Nguyễn Đại Hiếu, a team leader of a student group at the city’s University of Technology and Science, said that they had spent two-year creating solutions to support people with hearing impairments.

The team has been developing an AI-based application supporting children as part of a progressive movement of startup program, he added.

Five members of a student group at Đà Nẵng City's University of Technology and Science, share a photo at the Đà Nẵng Innovation Startup Festival. The team created solutions to support people with hearing impairments in the city.

The city’s Innovation and Start-up Support Centre also signed agreements with the TRON Tech Company to link the city’s innovation ecology system with the global network in terms of blockchain, fintech, digital transformation and domestic-international investment partnerships.

The centre, in partnership with UAE-based start-up incubator and accelerator, NQuBator, plans to boost engagement among local startup enterprises and partners in the UAE and the Middle East.

Local TPV Datatrust company also agreed to give a helping hand to the city in the development of Fintech, RegTech and technological expertise partnership building.

A trilateral deal between the city, Quest Ventures and Vietnam National Innovation Institute has helped trigger the Scale Next – a start-up acceleration and technology commercialisation programme – in supporting transforming inventive technologies into commercial and intellectual property.

A humanoid robot dances at an exhibition at the start-up innovation festival in Đà Nẵng City.

According to Quest Ventures, the programme aims to connect promising research solutions with the practical needs of enterprises, while helping research teams validate market demand, refine their technologies, build capable teams and identify suitable commercialisation pathways.

Vice chairman of the city’s people’s committee Hồ Quang Bửu said the festival offered a rendezvous for global and regional startup ideas and connections as Đà Nẵng has been building a global innovation centre.

The city has designed the science and technology sectors as two key crucial factors for Đà Nẵng’s fast and sustainable growth in the ‘rising era’, he added.

Bửu shared that Đà Nẵng has made its debut in the world’s Top 1,000 startup ecosystems before climbing up to 554th globally in just two years, according to StartupBlink’s 2026 global ranking.

Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Hoàng Minh urged the city to create an attractive living and working environment as well as favorable flexible policies in luring global venture capitals and joining the world value chain. — VNS