The Hanoi Times - Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Tran Quoc Thang spoke to Thoi bao Kinh te Viet Nam (Viet Nam Economic Times) about the market for scientific and technological innovation.

What percentage of scientific or technological innovations make it to the market in Viet Nam now?

In developed countries, about 15 to 20 per cent of products invented are invested in and brought to market. But in Viet Nam, o­nly about 5 to 10 per cent of inventions make it out to society. However, the products that have been applied have brought back lots of benefit. For example, a high-tech group at Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park has applied its product to clean a lake in Ha Noi; another group successfully discovered medicine to treat a disease of lobsters, which greatly benefited fish farmers.

Which field in science and technology should Viet Nam focus o­n?

We have been cultivating science and technology talents; we should turn those cultivation grounds into enterprises so that such enterprises can bring the products into life with advanced processes. In the wide range of science and technology, we should find a niche to fit into the world supply chain. For example, in the auto industry, we can focus to produce a unique product made in Viet Nam.

What is needed to achieve this?

We don’t lack skilful engineers, but we haven’t gathered them into groups. Every group needs a leader, or an engineer in charge. However, we haven’t had favourable conditions and policies for those leaders. Or, in other words, we haven’t had enough pressure to have an engineer in charge of production. There are enterprises, for example, which want to create high-quality made-in-Viet Nam products. But after calculations, they find that they will gain more profit with imported products, so they give up the idea of invention. As a result, Viet Nam has become a market easily penetrated by imported products, both good and bad, high or low quality. If this situation continues, our products will never become high-quality and cannot be exported. All the above talents will just be employees.

Do you think the Ministry of Science and Technology has responsibility for this?

Yes. As a result, we have advised the Government o­n technological innovation, which is vital for enterprises. Activities of measuring and evaluating the standards of intellectual property have contributed to promote the nation’s intellectual properties. We have also made regulations and policies for scientific and technology activities to create conditions for training a pool of new talent, from which we will choose leaders for projects.

At the moment, there are some enterprises which have paid attention to update their technology and make technical regulations. Creating regulations is very important because every enterprise must follow compulsory regulations. Some enterprises blame the lack of money o­n slow technological innovation. In fact, we don’t lack money. We just lack feasible projects. We have lots of people who got high rankings in international competitions in maths, physics and chemistry but have problems in applying their research.

What do you think about scientists’ role?

Scientists must find out what the society needs and have the will of a businessman. If not, their research projects will be worthless or of less value. Money will be wasted without making a breakthrough. o­ne more point is that both scientists and businessman should have scientific thought. Some farmers who have scientific thoughts have created tractors, harvester-threshers, or even an airplane while some scientists cannot create anything in their whole life. The Government should prioritise policies towards the two scientific forces of scientists working in institutes and universities and Vietnamese scientists abroad.

What should technological innovations focus o­n?

We have defined four key fields in science and technology to focus o­n which are information technology, construction materials, biology and automation. As an agriculture-based country with a high volume of agricultural products, we can invest more in preserving technology and post-harvest processing. In the high-tech field such as new energy, clean energy and nanotechnology, the Government is very willing to support all feasible projects. Breakthroughs in these areas are very important for scientists and businessmen. This is because scientific and technological products eventually become goods in the marketplace. o­nce they become goods, they will be accepted in the society and bought. Thus, the scientists will have orders for research.