Promoting Research, Transfer and Application of Scientific, Technological and Innovation Advances to Serve Rapid and Sustainable Economic Growth in Vietnam: Some Issues Today

1. In terms of subjects to promote the research, transfer and application of scientific, technological and innovative advances to serve rapid and sustainable economic growth in Vietnam

The process of accelerating research, transfer, and application of scientific, technological and innovative advances to serve rapid and sustainable economic growth is posing many urgent problems for subjects operating science and technology in our country.

First, the promotion of the role, capacity, initiative and activity of science and technology subjects in conditions of promoting the research, transfer and application of scientific, technological and innovative advances in Vietnam still has limitations, inadequacies and has not yet met the high requirements of rapid and sustainable economic growth.

In recent years, individuals and groups of scientists, science and technology organizations, science and technology research centers, research institutes, universities, science and technology enterprises, and science and technology associations, among others, have not yet been able to utilize their full capabilities and professional capacities for research, transfer and application of scientific and technological advances and innovation. They have not taken advantage of the available potentials and strengths, nor have they fully exploited the invested resources. The subjects of science and technology in Vietnam are still passive. They have not yet firmly carried out scientific tasks within their capacity, while still relying on the allocation of topics and tasks according to the plans of State agencies. They still mainly conduct the topics according to the old and repetitive ways. There has not been a strong breakthrough towards mastering the source technologies. There are no topics that are ahead of time, leading and forward- oriented. This fact has wasted some of the country’s precious scientific resources. Therefore, urgent problems are posed not only to the science and technology subjects themselves that need innovation and creativity, but also to relevant levels and industries, the Party, Government, ministries, departments, etc., that need to pay close attention to the promulgation of guidelines, policies, mechanisms and institutions to create a favorable environment, liberate scientific resources and domestic technology, especially promoting the central role and driving force of Vietnamese science and technology subjects, contributing to the acceleration of socio-economic development, supporting rapid and sustainable economic growth, and improving people’s living standards.

Second, the coordination between science and technology subjects and State management agencies in the fields of science, technology and innovation requires close and effective association and cooperation in the entire management system from the central to local levels with subjects engaged in science and technology activities.

That situation urgently requires appropriate measures to solve the relationship between State agencies and science and technology subjects in our country today. This should be started with the division of rights and duties between the concerned parties, in which it is necessary to clarify the macro management function of the State agency in charge of science and technology but at the same time increase the autonomy for science and technology subjects, to realize the potential capacity of the institution. The right to greater autonomy and greater participation will be the basis for building a sense of responsibility of science and technology subjects, as well as monitoring methods to reduce opportunism, corruption, and inefficient spending.

Third, the State’s order for science and technology subjects in a number of key scientific and technological tasks is becoming a pressing issue for the development of science and technology in Vietnam today.

In recent years, the State’s research orders for science and technology subjects are posing drawbacks. One reason is that the financial mechanism is heavily administrative and subsidized. That is the bottleneck and barrier preventing the success of science and technology. This bottleneck can only be removed by implementing a policy of contracting to the final product, i.e., the State “orders” research results at an agreed price. At the same time, the State’s orders for science and technology subjects must fall within the general guidelines and policies of the country’s development, with a clear focus, and must adhere to the 06 core tasks and 03 strategic breakthroughs outlined by the 13th National Congress in order to realize the Party’s guidelines in practice, especially making science and technology to become a driving force for development and to contribute to the rapid and sustainable growth of the country. In the context of the current Covid-19 pandemic, the State needs to have policies and create conditions for science and technology subjects to focus on researching and applying technology to prevent and control Covid-19, in which it is noted that it needs to support research activities for the production of vaccines and drugs to treat Covid-19 and to research fast and sustainable economic growth.

Fourth, the work of training human resources to further improve the capacity of science and technology subjects in our country has been and continues to be a key issue of the scientific, technological and innovation advances today.

It can be seen that the majority of research institutions and scientific and technological organizations in our country are still in shortage for high-quality human resources, especially a team of leading experts and scientists who can respond to the process of promoting research, transfer and application of scientific, technological and innovation advances to serve rapid and sustainable economic growth. To solve this problem, our task in the coming time is to step up the work of training and fostering human resources in science and technology; to continue the training program of high-level science and technology human resources in priority and key fields of science and technology, especially technology 4.0 and digital technology in countries with a strong background in advanced technology, as well as to strengthen postgraduate training in the country; to encourage the private sector and enterprises to participate in training human resources in science and technology; to create tax incentives for private investment and enterprises to participate in training human resources in science and technology; to honor officers and employees of enterprises participating in human resource training; to strengthen international linkages in training human resources in science and technology; to expand scholarships for foreign students and doctoral students; to adopt policies to send Vietnamese scientists to work and study at international research institutes, universities and enterprises; to adopt policies to attract and use human resources in science and technology; and to develop networks to connect Vietnamese talents and attract the participation and contributions of the overseas Vietnamese community of scientists.

2. In term of contents to promote the research, transfer and application of scientific, technological and innovative advances to serve rapid and sustainable economic growth in Vietnam

Currently, the identification and implementation of contents to promote the research, transfer and application of scientific, technological and innovative advances to serve rapid and sustainable economic growth in Vietnam is a pressing issue that needs to be addressed.

First, an urgent issue in promoting research, transfer and application of scientific, technological and innovative advances to serve rapid and sustainable economic growth in Vietnam today is that the content of research, transfer and application of scientific and technological advances must adhere to the major orientations and guidelines of the Party set forth at the 13th National Congress.

Reality is placing great demands on the content of research, transfer and application of scientific, technological and innovation advances to serve rapid and sustainable economic growth in Vietnam and requires changing content to adhere closely to the great orientations and guidelines of the Party set forth at the 13th National Congress, which are: “Strongly develop science, technology, and innovation to create breakthroughs and improve productivity, quality, efficiency and competitiveness of the economy”(5); “Clearly define targets and action plans to apply and develop science, technology and innovation in all activities at all levels, sectors and localities.”(6) Along with that, the Document of the 13th National Congress also defined contents in the development of sectors and fields such as social sciences and humanities, natural sciences, engineering, etc. Basic contents of innovation, development, and application of science and technology in our country is now identified as high technology, source technology, advanced, modern, preeminent, oriented, leading, and at the same time must be core, key, and spearhead technology. This is the most basic factor for us to carry out the process of accelerating industrialization towards modernity, associated with building a start-up nation and start-up businesses and promoting the country’s rapid and sustainable development. This is a fundamental factor preventing the country from falling into the “middle-income trap”, and also an important factor for the development of modern productive forces, innovation of growth models, and improvement of productivity, quality, efficiency and competitiveness of the economy. This must be concretized by specific mechanisms and policies for the national development.

Second, the content of promoting the research, transfer and application of scientific, technological and innovation advances to serve rapid and sustainable economic growth in Vietnam today must be associated with the content and requirements of the Industrial Revolution 4.0.

Science and technology play a great role as both a tool and a driving force, as well as a basis and foundation for the development of the knowledge economy. Also, it is an object being influenced by the impact of the Industrial Revolution 4.0. Therefore, in the process of our country’s scientific and technological development, it is necessary to be associated with the contents and requirements of the Industrial Revolution 4.0. Simultaneously, it is imperative to prioritize resources for the implementation of key research programs on priority technologies, with the focus on: Information and communication technology, mechatronics, and new technologies in the field of energy, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, electronics, etc.

In Vietnam, it is necessary to make effective use of opportunities brought by the Industrial Revolution 4.0 to promote the process of renovating the growth model; restructuring the economy in association with the implementation of breakthrough strategy and modernization of the country; strongly developing the digital economy; rapidly and sustainably developing based on science, technology, innovation and high quality human resources; improving the quality of life and welfare of the people; firmly ensuring national defense and security; and protecting the ecological environment.

Third, solving the relationship between inclusive (comprehensive) development of science and technology with priority given to investment in the development of spearheading key science and technology fields is becoming a requirement of the current process of accelerating research, transfer and application of scientific, technological and innovation advances to serve rapid and sustainable economic growth in Vietnam.

Second, the transfer of research results and innovation has achieved some success. However, the method of transferring scientific and technological advances of science and technology subjects into life is actually still spontaneously done by individual scientists or according to the plans of ministries, branches and localities. It has not come from the real needs of the science and technology market, thus limiting the initiative and competitiveness of scientific and technological products.

The problem is to find out the causes leading to limitations in the transfer and application of research results to production and life, such as the following: the market demand has not been determined; the quality of research and tasks using the state budget have not yet met the requirements of the market; scientists and managers are not really interested in transferring research results into life; and the mechanism to support the transfer of research results still has shortcomings, especially the complicated financial mechanism, among other things. To overcome these limitations, it is necessary to come up with synchronous and reasonable solutions to effectively develop, represent, and synchronize the subjects and linkages of the national innovation system, the national industry innovation system, and the national, regional and local innovation system, in which enterprises are the center of the national innovation system, where they receive, create and apply scientific and technological knowledge to create new technologies, products and services for socioeconomic development. Meanwhile, research institutes and universities are the key to generating and transferring scientific and technological knowledge and high-quality human resources to enterprises. Institutions supporting national innovation activities such as intellectual property, standards-measurement-quality, finance, banks, and other national innovation support organizations, and State agencies at central and local levels must have the role of orienting, coordinating and creating a favorable institutional and policy environment for the effective operation of the whole system.

Third, the building and improvement of institutions, mechanisms and policies to develop the science and technology market towards serving production and business, focusing on enterprises, promoting innovation, creating favorable conditions, and encouraging scientific subjects, people and enterprises to participate more in scientific and technological research and development activities have become one of the urgent issues in renovating methods of promoting the research, transfer and application of scientific, technological and innovation advances in service of rapid and sustainable economic growth in Vietnam today.