On the afternoon of August 12, the Announcement Ceremony of the Youth Startup Award 2026 program took place at the Ho Chi Minh City Creative Startup Center (SIHUB), with the theme "Innovation for the city of the future".
According to shares from the organizers, the scale of Ho Chi Minh City after the merger is posing new problems. Ho Chi Minh City has development space, large population and market size. Along with opportunities are higher requirements for transportation, logistics, housing, environment, data and social security.
No business can solve all these problems. The city also does not need to wait for a single solution. What is needed is many suitable solutions, each solution doing a good part of the job and having the ability to connect with the system.
Data shows that Ho Chi Minh City loses more than 6 billion USD each year due to traffic congestion, and floods cause more than 1.3 billion USD in damage. Ho Chi Minh City residents are also very interested in social housing projects. Regarding the environment, Ho Chi Minh City after the merger generates about 14,000 tons of domestic solid waste every day; about 99.3% is collected and treated, but most still depends on landfilling.
Behind the numbers is not only management pressure. It is also time, costs and resources that are being lost; it is needs that have not been fully served. For startups, these gaps can become places to create value. An improvement that seems moderate, when applied on a urban scale, can have a significant impact," said the representative of the organizing committee.
This is both a challenge and opens up great opportunities for startups to develop innovative solutions, directly participating in solving urban problems using technology.
This vision is strengthened by strategic orientations from the Central Government such as Resolution 57-NQ/TW, Resolution 68-NQ/TW and Resolution 260/2025/QH15 on specific mechanisms and policies for Ho Chi Minh City.
With that meaning, this year's competition focuses on finding startups that own core technology, have products that have been commercialized or are ready for trial implementation, targeting three key areas, including: Financial technology and digital economy; Infrastructure, transportation and logistics; Social security and sustainable development.
The program will be launched and receive applications from December 12 to September 30 of this year. The preliminary judging council will evaluate and select 30 typical startups. After that, the best projects will participate in the final round according to 3 themes, with the award ceremony expected to take place in October 2026.
