Creating Driving Force for Scientific and Technological Development

Minister Nguyen Quan said the State budget for science remains very modest. The State Budget is the primary financial source for scientific and technological research and development while businesses and other social organisations are not interested in. Meanwhile, in many countries in the world, private investments for science and technology are 5-10 times that of the State budget. This shows that we not only fall short of funds for scientific and technological investment but we

Deputy Finance Minister Nguyen Thi Minh Vietnam should soon complete scientific and technological development funds. Specifically, the country needs to clearly define functions and tasks of the National Technological Renovation Fund, mobilise non-State sources, amend policies to encourage businesses to spend more on scientific and technological research and development, and enhance the efficiency of inspection and testing of scientific and technological results.

are also weak at mobilising other investment sources like businesses. Hence, in its scientific and technological investment strategies, Vietnam strived to bring the investment value for this aspect to 1.5 percent of GDP in the 2003- 2010 and 2 percent by 2020. However, till now, the rate is just 1 percent of GDP, and above half comes from the State Budget.

 

In my opinion, Vietnam needs to focus on seven major groups of measures to reform and remove obstacles of financing mechanism for scientific and technological development. It is necessary to mobilise and diversify investment resources for science and technology; allocate enough resources and improve the efficiency of State-funded investment for science and technology; apply breakthrough policies to attract private investment; enhance financial management over scientific and technological investment; perfect the scientific and technological development funds, especially business-run foundations; increase supervision, examination and inspection in State funds; boost up publicity, transparency and accountability for the use of the State budget; and others.

 

As the State budget is the main source of funds for science and technology; thus, this activity is subject to State financial regulations. There are many inappropriate provisions but amendments are very slow. Many activities important in scientific and technological development are not clearly defined by the laws; thus, man items of expenditure are not settled by the State budget. Typical shortfalls include foreign expert employment, patent registration or international announcement. In reality, base salary has more than doubled and prices of many products and services have risen a lot but expenditure limits remain unchanged since then.

 

Besides, it is also a pity that a lot of people working on science are living in hardship. Without highest concentration on their works, many researches do not have high quality. However, their researches are still accepted but they are almost unusable. The reality poses an urgent need for a dramatic change in the viewpoint of policymakers on scientific and technological investment: Investment for human development is as important as investment for equipment. This will make scientific and technological investment successful. It is quite clear that the problems of scientific and technological research are now not only facilities but also the mechanism to attract talents.

 

Ho Chi Minh City is a typically successful example. The city always uses a certain sum of State funds for key technological research and development and human

Professor Nguyen Van Hieu Vietnam must to have a large, not just enough, capital source to develop its science and technology industry. It needs to focus on key programmes and fields and have specific development directions. It should screen good-performing researchers and universities to give more resources for scientific and technological development. It needs to formulate a model that can compete in science and technology with the region.

resource training. In scientific management, it always places a premium on the output of scientific works which can be created by the cooperation with businesses and researchers. It clearly defines the utility values of any research project before seeking its users. The tax laws provide that a company is allowed to extract at most 10 percent of profit before tax for science and technology. But, there is no harm for them if they do not spend any pence on this work. Therefore, according to Ho Chi Minh City’s experience, a company should be required to use at least 5 percent of profit for scientific research. If this ruling is supported by businesses, we will have an enormous source for scientific and technological investment.