Vietnamese-born former German Vice Chancellor Philipp Roesler is on the way back to his homeland to back local start-ups to enhance operations in foreign markets.

Roesler has just given a nod to an offer by Ho Chi Minh City-based VinaCapital to chair the advisory board of VinaCapital Ventures, the group’s technology investment arm, to aid the Vietnamese start-up community both at home and overseas.

VinaCapital, with nearly US$2 billion in assets under management in Vietnam, has over 15 years of experience in the country, and currently manages funds across multiple asset classes, including public and private equity, fixed income, real estate, venture capital, and managed accounts. VinaCapital CEO and co-founder Don Lam, a frequent speaker at international investment seminars and featured as Vietnam’s "Mr. Wall Street" in Fortune magazine, said Roesler “holds unique experience and vision, therefore he could make substantial contributions to the start-up ecosystem in Vietnam and give advice to companies where VinaCapital has investments.”

Roesler was born in 1973 in Ba Xuyen Province ( now Soc Trang Province ) in southern Vietnam. At the age of nine months, he was adopted from an orphanage near Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City, by a German couple and then brought to Germany.

Roesler served as vice chancellor of Germany, federal minister of economics and technology, and chairman of Germany's Free Democratic Party from 2011 to 2013. During his time as federal minister of economics and technology, Roesler led efforts to expand vocational training and foster entrepreneurship, particularly in the German start-up community.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc hosted a reception on March 13 for Roesler, urging him to make further contributions to Vietnam’s socio- economic development, especially towards the development of the business community. The prime minister briefed Roesler on Vietnam’s socio-economic situation over the years, and called on him to help with the start-up ecosystem, an area he is particularly interested in, to make the country’s start-up projects and programmes more effective and practical.

Previously, during their meeting on the sidelines of the first Vietnamese Young Intellectual Forum in Danang City late 2018, the prime minister had expressed his hope that Roesler, with Vietnamese blood running in his veins, would make further contributions to Vietnam’s socio-economic growth and help the country become home to many major businesses over the ensuing years.

Following the meeting this March, VinaCapital Ventures announced that it had successfully invested in the two tech start-ups of UrBox and Wee Digital. UrBox provides creative marketing campaigns to help businesses attract clients. Meanwhile, Wee Digital provides solutions optimizing users’ interaction in digital banking services by applying biometric technology and artificial intelligence.

Google has also just announced a programme to help Vietnamese start-ups go global. Under the initiative, start-ups less than five years old that are yet to process Series B funding will be eligible for Google Cloud packages worth US$20,000 to US$100,000.

Vietnam is considered by some commentators as being among the most dynamic start-up hubs in the world. Well-educated, young entrepreneurs are expected to improve the country’s position on the global start-up map. However, no official statistics on start-ups in the nation are available, though regional tech sources guess as many as 3,000 or so are operating there, making it the third-largest start-up ecosystem in Asia.

A medical doctor by training, Roesler also previously held the role of Germany's federal minister of health. Since 2014, he had served as a member of the managing board and head of regional and government engagement at the World Economic Forum. In December 2017, New York-based Hainan Cihang Charity Foundation Inc., the largest shareholder of HNA Group ( involved in numerous industries including aviation, real estate, financial services, tourism, logistics and more ) announced that it had appointed Roesler as its inaugural CEO to build the fund consistent with the commitment by HNA founders.