Amid difficulties and challenges caused by COVID-19 pandemic which are forecast to persist this year, sci-tech development and innovation are still considered a decisive factor to improve national competitiveness, promote rapid and sustainable national development.
Directing 2022 tasks, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam stressed that the science-technology sector must design a mechanism to develop start-ups as part of the innovation ecological system.
Minister of Science and Technology Huynh Thanh Dat asked the entire sector to focus efforts on rolling out the sci-tech and innovation development strategy for the 2021-2030, with a focus on the national start-up and innovation ecological system.
According to him, the ministry will continue studying and proposing a pilot mechanism to develop sci-tech enterprises in research institutes and universities in the spin-off model, connect universities and research institutes with industrial parks and firms to step up commercialization of research results.
Dat stressed that with over 3,000 start-ups, Vietnam ranked third in Southeast Asia in terms of having a dynamic and innovative start-up system, only behind Indonesia and Singapore.
The E-Conomy SEA 2021 report released by Google, Temasek, and Bain & Company on November 10, 2021, showed that capital flows into Vietnam’s start-ups soared in the first half of 2021 to an all-time high USD 1.37 billion, focusing on e-commerce, finance, health care and education.
Preliminary statistics by the Foreign Ministry’s State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs showed that about 50 Vietnamese intellectual associations and networks have been established abroad. Over 500,000 experts and intellectuals are working for foreign research institutes and universities in most key areas. They are an invaluable resource to help start-ups expand markets, call for capital and pool brainpower globally.
This year, the ministry will work to turn universities into real sci-tech research hubs. It is partnering with the Ministry of Education and Training to build a draft decree regulating sci-tech activities in tertiary educational establishments. At the same time, the ministry will continue hastening administrative reform in combination with e-Government building, using technological advances in sci-tech management to ensure openness and transparency.- (VNA/VLLF)
