But Vuong, a young venture capitalist in Vietnam, may be on to something. The firm that Vuong works for in Vietnam, Pat McGovern’s Boston-based IDG Ventures, invests hundreds of millions of dollars in tech startups in Vietnam, India, and China and has made tons of money. China is the gold mine, India is the land of promise, and Vietnam is the frontier.

Nguyen Hoa Binh of eBay’s Peacesoft with IDG’s James Vuong

IDG is a pioneer with this strategy. This odd-seeming group of nations belongs together because of a growing number of overlapping trends. Of all the dragon and tiger emerging economies in the East, the VIC countries best represent the entrepreneurial spirit and venture capital rush of Startup Asia.

Multiple Silicon Valleys have sprung up in Beijing, Shanghai, and Bangalore, and even Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City could get on the tech map soon. From John Doerr’s Kleiner Perkins to Jim Breyer’s Accel Partners, all the Sand Hill Road shops are parked in Asia’s boomtowns.

Entrepreneurs and college graduates have landed in Asia’s tech hubs, too, and haven’t looked back. Alice Wang grew up in San Diego, California, and left Yale University during the spring semester of her junior year to move to Beijing and take a job as a sales director at GroupOn China. She knew it was risky and challenging, but the lure of this tantalizing opportunity to join China’s tech race was irresistible. Wang spent her first few weeks working past midnight to meet incredible sales quotas and described it as chaotic but “very exhilarating.”

This self-assured dynamo still found time to host a dinner for me in Beijing with a dozen 30-and-under members of a global entrepreneur network, Sandbox, she spearheads in China. There’s a good chance your daughter, too, and certainly hundreds of the followers and friends Wang has on Twitter and Facebook will land in Beijing and stay for a startup career. Who isn’t studying Mandarin today to get ahead?

The chance to become rich and famous with a startup is no longer just an American dream. It’s happening in Asia, in record numbers. Consider:

1. Since 2005, more than 6,000 startups in Asia—56 percent of them in India and China—have been backed by venture capital.

2. China and India accounted for 13 percent of $37.8 billion invested in startups globally in 2010. That’s up from 5 percent in 2005. China is the second-largest venture market in the world, followed by India.

3. China ranks fourth in the world for new patent applications, up from tenth place in 2005. Two giant Chinese companies—ZTE Corp. and Huawei Technologies—rank among the top four businesses worldwide that are filing for patents.

4. China ranks tops in the world for digital communications, with 440 million Internet users and 840 million mobile service subscribers, followed by India’s 673 million subscribers. Vietnam has a relatively high Internet penetration, with more than one-quarter of the population with web access and 78 million mobile service subscribers in a country of 89 million people!

Asia’s innovation hotspots are fast emerging as first-choice destinations for bright young entrepreneurs. China and India have grabbed the brass ring and are attracting top talent, capital, and tomorrow’s leading startups. Meanwhile, Vietnam emerges with mobile gaming and search, Singapore helps to seed budding entrepreneurs with government handouts and skillful coaching, and Taiwan lures startups to move beyond their base in churning out more than semiconductors and electronic goods.

The supercharged emerging markets of Asia promise to deliver the next Facebook phase—a turning point that will spark a creativity surge like the social network did during this decade’s social media boom. Startups create jobs and wealth, plus enthusiasm for future innovations. It’s a wake-up call for America.

Go East, Young Entrepreneur!  And read Startup Asia, by Rebecca A. Fannin with a foreword by Kai-Fu Lee

Source: www.amazon.com/Startup-Asia-Strategies-Innovation

Author: Rebecca A. Fannin

Publisher: Wiley, 1 edition (September 26, 2011)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services

Source: www.amazon.com/Startup-Asia-Strategies-Innovation

Sự ra đời của Đại học Apollo tạo điều kiện cho sinh viên Việt Nam được nhận bằng tốt nghiệp của trường Đại học tổng hợp London mà không cần phải đi du học. Chương trình học bao gồm các ngành thương mại, kế toán, tài chính và ngân hàng.

Thủ tướng Nguyễn Tấn Dũng trao quyết định thành lập ĐH Apollo.

Ông Khalid Muhmood, Chủ tịch HĐQT Apollo, cho biết: “Nhờ mối quan hệ hợp tác chặt chẽ với các trường đại học danh tiếng tại Anh, Apollo sẽ tiến hành cung cấp các khoá học với bắng cấp được quốc tế công nhận. Sinh viên học tập tại Đại học Apollo ở Việt Nam sẽ nhận được bằng cấp có giá trị hoàn toàn giống như bằng cấp họ nhận được khi theo học tại Anh quốc, với mức chi phí thấp hơn”.

Đại học tổng hợp London với lịch sử hơn 150 năm, là một trong những trường danh giá, lâu đời và cung cấp các khoá học đa dạng nhất ở Vương quốc Anh và trên thế giới. Đây là cái nôi của nhiều thế hệ Tổng thống, Thủ tướng, nguyên thủ quốc gia. 5 sinh viên xuất sắc của trường đã được nhận giải Nobel, trong đó nổi tiếng có Tổng thống CH Nam Phi Nelson Mandela với giải Nobel hoà bình. Hệ đào tạo ở nước ngoài của ĐH London đã phát triển ở 20 quốc gia.

Các chương trình học tập tại trường sẽ được tiến hành trong vòng 6 tháng tới. Các khoá học đều do các giáo sư uy tín giảng dạy bằng tiếng Anh. Trước mắt, đại học Apollo sẽ tạm thời sử dụng các cơ sở sẵn có tại Hà Nội, sau đó sẽ tiến hành xây dựng các trường ở Hà Nội và TP HCM.

Thông tin chi tiết về trường được cung cấp tại địa chỉ:

- Đại học London:

Binda Rai +44 (0)20 7862 8545
Peter Quinn +44 (0)20 7664 5584

- Tại Việt Nam: Đại học Apollo
91 Phố Huế – 84 4 9432053
67 Lê Văn Hưu – 84 4 9432051
176 Thái Hà – 84 4 5373251
36 Pham Tuấn Tài – 84 4 7554733

http://www.apolloedutrain.com

The four sides announced the MJ Group establishment and their investment at a ceremony in Ho Chi Minh City.

IDG Ventures Vietnam general manager Rachan Reddy, Rebate Networks CEO and founder Michael Brehm, Ru-net chairperson Leonid Boguslavsky from Moscow, and MJ CEO Tom Tran signed their investment deal at the MJ Group launch.

(L-R) Rebate Networks CEO Michael Brehm, Ru-net chairman Leonid Boguslavsky,
MJ CEO Tom Tran and IDG Ventures Vietnam general manager Rachan Reddy
sign their investment deal Sep. 9 in Ho Chi Minh City
(Photo: Tuong Thuy)

(L-R) Rebate Networks CEO Michael Brehm, Ru-net chairman Leonid Boguslavsky,
Ho Chi Minh City Department of Information and Communications director Le Thai Hy,
MJ CEO Tom Tran and IDG Ventures Vietnam general partner Rachan act to launch MJ Group Sep. 7
(Photo: Tuong Thuy)

The American, German and Russian investors did not announce their stake percentage in the online commerce platform.

“This is Ru-net’s first investment in Asia,” Boguslavsky said, adding that his company saw clear potential from e-commerce in Vietnam.

IDG Ventures Vietnam’s Reddy said, “This is a significant day for MJ Group and the companies which it encompasses – Nhommua.com and Diadiem.com.

“It’s also a milestone for Vietnam’s e-commerce sector and the ICT community.

“As some of you may know, IDG Ventures has been an early believer, supporter and investor in Vietnam and Vietnam’s technology and media community. We believed in the opportunity in Vietnam and also in the Government’s plan to prioritize, promote and build the sectors.

“We also believed very early in Tom [Tran], his vision and his team.”

Rebate Networks CEO and founder Brehm said his German company invested in innovative enterprises worldwide with a concentration in Asia, Europe and South America.

Tran, meanwhile, announced the merger of Nhommua.com and Diadiem.com to form MJ.

Diadiem.com is a leading location and navigation services provider in Vietnam.

Nhommua.com is a popular online commerce platform in the country
MJ also includes Two.vn, a mobile applications company, and Two Media, an online advertising expert.

The merged company now has nearly 500 employees in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, according to Tran, a Vietnamese-American.

“I’m also glad to announce that we will aggressively aim to hire at least 1,000 new employees within the next 12 months, not only in technical and management but also in administrative and support functions.”

Nhommua’s chief operating officer David Tran said that a merger could strongly boost the strengths of the sides interested. “One plus one equals two in maths but could be more in a merger,” he said while showing a slide with 1+1=3.

IDG Ventures Vietnam is the first technology venture capital fund in Vietnam. Since 2004, IDG has been working with entrepreneurs to grow innovative and market-leading companies. It currently has $100 million under management, with investments in over 40 companies in the technology, media, telecommunications, and consumer sectors.

Its anchor Limited Partner investor is International Data Group (IDG), the world’s largest IT media company.

Several days ago Vietnam announced an ambitious plan to become an information technology power in the world and verbally committed to gathering strength to realize the plan.  When giving advice about what Vietnam needs to do to reach that goal, experts have stressed that developing broadband will help Vietnam successfully implement the plan. Vietnamese experts themselves also think that it is reasonable and necessary to develop a national strategy on broadband development at this moment.

According to the World Bank, Vietnam has witnessed strong development in many economic fields, including telecommunications. Besides urban areas and big cities, rural areas should also be seen as potential areas for broadband development. In order to exploit the market, the first thing that Vietnam needs to do is to expand connections.

A representative of Huawei Group, who did not conceal his high expectations for Vietnam’s national strategy on broadband development, said that Vietnam can absolutely create a “miracle on the Red River” like South Korea once created a “miracle on the Han River”.

A “miracle on the Han River” refers to South Korea’s highly accelerated export-fueled economic growth, including rapid industrialization, technological achievement, education boom, exponential rise in living standards, rapid urbanization, skyscraper boom, modernization, fast democratization and globalization that miraculously transformed the country from the ashes of the Korean war to a wealthy and highly developed country today.

The representative said that in 1985, South Korea started developing its telecom industry from square one. Meanwhile, its broadband now ranks first in the world, which is a significant accomplishment.

“Broadband connection will serve as the main driving force for Vietnam to create a miracle in the near future. A national broadband system will help Vietnam develop e-commerce, healthcare, education and transport infrastructure,” he said. “It is necessary to develop broadband as soon as possible. We do believe that Vietnam will reach its goal of being a powerhouse in IT and telecommunications”.

A representative from a satellite company agreed, saying that it would be a reasonable move to set up a nationwide broadband network.

“Vietnam has Vinasat 1 satellite and it is going to have Vinasat 2 by 2012, which will allow the country to cover broadband waves to every corner of the country without any worry about geographical distances.”

Representative from Amdocs also thinks that developing broadband will be a wise move. However, Vietnam needs to create a “fair playing field” for many service providers. As there are many service providers, the competition among the service providers will be stiffer, and customers will have opportunities to use high quality services at competitive fees. Especially, service providers will not only try to develop services in urban areas, but in rural areas as well.

Speaking at a conference on consulting with foreign partners about the implementation of the strategy to turn Vietnam into an IT power, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan, Head of the National Steering Committee on IT Development said that in the last 10 years, the government has always prioritized the IT industry and considered it a key industry to develop the country. This explains why in recent years the IT growth rate has always been high at 20 percent per annum.

To date, some Vietnamese enterprises have cemented their firm positions on the domestic market and they are considering reaching out to the world market, including the Vietnam Post and Communication Group VNPT, Viettel, or VTC. An ambitious goal has been set for enterprises to strive to have a turnover of 10 billion dollar by 2015. This can absolutely happen.

Nhan also emphasized that Vietnam has every reason to realize the dream becoming an IT power. However, Nhan admitted that Vietnam still has problems in the quality of the labor force. Especially, IT workers lack soft skills and foreign language skills.

Source: http://english.vietnamnet.vn/en/science-technology/6696/broadband-will-help-create-a–miracle-on-the-red-river-.html