Unleashing Vietnam's Private Sector
Will Resolution 68 be a game-changer?
We’re back. After three years building from the trenches, it’s time to share what we’ve learned, seen, and where Vietnam’s startup future is heading.
The Ascent, presented by AVV and coming to you from Ho Chi Minh City, is your front-row seat to how this next-generation market is building global winners, one startup at a time.
Founders, are you building a Vietnam-rooted, global startup? Tell us your story by replying to this email or leaving a comment. Other readers - forward this to a founder who should be on our radar.
We’ve been busy with a few notable firm updates, including:
Renaming 500 Startups Vietnam to AVV Fund 1
Co-leading TechCoop’s Series A funding round with our fourth check into the company
Fund 2’s portfolio now has over 20 companies covering sectors such as Agritech, Fintech, AI, and MarTech
Fund 2 is aiming to invest $6 million into six companies over the next six months, with a focus on founders building market-defining startups with ties to Vietnam
Astute readers may notice that we’ve switched from Mailchimp to Substack, allowing for more personalization and community-building. The Ascent’s previous sections - Vietnam Tech in the News, Spotlight, and the AVV in Action - will carry on for now, though in a different order. We also plan to experiment with other formats. Hit the ‘reply’ button on this email if you have any feedback or suggestions on things you’d like to see in the future.
Outside of AVV, there’s no shortage of topics to discuss. Trump’s tariffs, for example, remain the conversation starter du jour. We’ll address that issue another time, though.
Let’s get into our Spotlight for the month: Vietnam’s momentous push for the private sector to drive the national economy forward.
Resolution 68 - Vietnam’s Private Sector Gets Its 10-Year Mandate
In early May, Vietnam’s Politburo approved Resolution 68, which identified the private sector as “the most important driving force of the national economy.” It lays out several targets for 2030, including:
Roughly doubling the number of private businesses to 2 million
Developing at least 20 large private corporations integrated into the global value chain
Annual sector growth of 10-12%
The private sector making up 68% of GDP
Some national leaders have been even more ambitious. In March, General Secretary Tô Lâm called for the sector to make up 70% of Vietnam’s GDP by the end of this decade as part of his drive to advance economic development.
The private sector is already a critical economic player, currently accounting for around half of total GDP, which hit US$476 billion in 2024. However, domestic companies generally lag behind FDI businesses, and very few are competitive outside of Vietnam. SOEs also continue to play a significant role in the economy, especially in sectors such as telecommunications (Viettel), energy (Petrovietnam), and banking (Vietcombank).
A call from the highest levels of government for homegrown private businesses to take the lead is, therefore, a significant shift, one that has been greeted with widespread enthusiasm across the board.
Amid this enthusiasm, it’s worth looking at Resolution 68 in the context of past policies aimed at expanding the private sector. Previous resolutions and regulations had goals such as reaching 1 million private businesses by 2020, a target that was missed due to ongoing challenges around taxes, access to land, favoritism toward FDI/SOEs, and other issues. On paper, this new resolution directly addresses several of these hurdles by, for example, calling on officials to support entrepreneurs (instead of managing them), expanding land access, easing the tax burden (a stumbling block for household businesses in particular, many of which have resisted government urging to formalize), and generally placing small businesses on equal footing with major foreign or state-owned firms.
The shift to considering private industry the “driving force” of the economy is certainly notable, but it will be critical to see concrete policies and other actions follow in the coming months.
Vietnam Tech in the News
A tale of two e-commerce companies:
Sendo, once a significant player in Vietnam’s e-commerce industry, shut its marketplace in April due to the dominance of Shopee and TikTok Shop (with Lazada a distant third). As Rest of World reports, however, the company has rebranded as Sendo Farm to focus solely on the US$2.8 billion online grocery market. It remains to be seen whether Tiki, once considered a potential unicorn, can pivot from its disastrous fall, with the company now valued at just $9.4 million while major shareholders like VNG wash their hands of the business.
Vingroup spins off its AI subsidiaries
In April, Qualcomm acquired MovianAI, the former generative AI division of the Vingroup subsidiary VinAI. Dr. Hung Bui, VinAI’s founder, joined Qualcomm as part of the deal, the financial details of which are unknown. This followed December’s acquisition of VinBrain, another Vingroup subsidiary, by Nvidia during Jensen Huang’s visit to Vietnam. These deals show that Vietnam can build cutting-edge tech that attracts top global firms.
Vietnam blocks Telegram
The Ministry of Science and Technology recently ordered domestic telecommunications services to block the encrypted messaging app Telegram. Vietnamese police claim that “almost 70 percent of 9,600 channels on Telegram in Vietnam contain ‘poisonous and bad information.’” Officials argue that groups use the app to organize drug trafficking, anti-state activities, and other actions. We found that Telegram is now inaccessible without a VPN, at least on Viettel.
AVV in Action
Eddie moderated a session titled 'ESG in the Startup Ecosystem: Is Sustainability the Ultimate Competitive Advantage?' at the third ESG Investor Conference in Ho Chi Minh City.
Akhil Khurana, Cheryl Tay, Bicky Nguyen, and Mick Liubinskas shared insights on how to encourage SMEs to complete ESG assessments, the impact of the eFishery fraud scandal on the regional startup ecosystem, addressing the gap between understanding ESG and acting on it, and more.
Our team attended the Viet Nam Innovation & Private Capital (VPCA) Summit in Hanoi from April 21-23 and hosted the AVV Capital Nights pre-party. This invite-only gathering for founders, investors, speakers, and other distinguished guests at a rooftop bar was designed for meaningful connections and a memorable evening.
Binh sat down with Bloomberg Businessweek at the 2025 International AI-Semiconductor Conference in Hanoi to discuss how Vietnamese startups can be empowered to adopt AI. When asked whether AI alone would help more startups survive, Binh said: “The AI factor won't help startup survival rates. What will help is your deep understanding of how to package that technology, if that tech is solving a real customer pain, and are you doing it in a unique way that allows you to carve out a large enough market."
Eddie was interviewed by Reuters, South China Morning Post, Al Jazeera, and other news outlets in the wake of the U.S.-launched global trade war. Reporters’ questions and angles varied – some Vietnam macro-focused, some VC/startup-focused, some geopolitical. Even for narrow angles, there is substantial complexity. But common themes shared were (a) the global trade system does need to continue to evolve for both U.S. domestic and international considerations, (b) nonetheless, the U.S. approach was ill-advised, (c) how everything settles is still very much in the air and is likely to be so for at least 1-2 quarters, (d) the interim uncertainty and ultimate aftermath will likely cause a lot of pain, and (e) nonetheless, as often in times of rapid change and/or hardship, there will still be startups founded, money deployed, and new products / new businesses finding opportunities.
Hau took part in a business luncheon on ‘Breaking the Digital Frontier: Digital Transformation for a Sustainable Vietnam’ organized by Eurocham and Acclime. The goal was to provide practical guidance for businesses in the country’s fast-changing digital economy while ensuring sustainability. Topics included Vietnam’s digital economy landscape, green digital innovations and sustainable business strategies, investment opportunities in sustainable digital projects, green financing, and policy and regulatory frameworks for the digital and green sectors.
What we’re reading:
X’s ‘Creator Revenue Sharing Program’ gets ‘totally pwned’ by Vietnamese click farm, lawsuit reveals (The Independent)
The Man With a Plan for Vietnam (The Economist)
See you next month,
The AVV Team
Great post. Hopefully this could make room for local champions to grow.
That being said, actual reforms, not vision statements will actually move the needle.