Opportunities for Vietnam in international S&T integration and cooperation

Orientation for international S&T integration and cooperation of Vietnam

The second Plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Session VIII) in 1996 issued a resolution on “Strategic orientation to develop science and technology by 2020, and the mission to 2000”. This is the first time the Central Committee issued a separate Resolution about the development of S&T and motivated the entire Party and the nation to develop S&T. In particular, the Resolution identified international cooperation as one of the critical solutions and one of the key tasks to perform. The documents of the 6th to the 10th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam consistently expressed the views of the Party on the development of S&T in general and international S&T cooperation in particular. In the eleventh National Congress, in order to fulfill the requirements of changing the growth model and restructuring the economy to improve the quality, efficiency and competitiveness towards a fast and sustainable development, the Party emphasized that there are no other ways but to rely on science and technology, high-quality human resources and developing a knowledge economy .

In this context, the adoption of the scheme of international S&T integration by 2020 is to make a breakthrough in enhancing Vietnam’s capacity of S&T, aiming to develop strong capacity of Vietnam in several fields in 2020, serving the cause of industrialization and modernization of the country and closing the gap in the level of S&T between Vietnam and other countries in the region and in the world. The Party and State emphasizes their perspectives of S&T cooperation:

(i)     positive and proactive international S&T integration, ensuring the independence, sovereignty, national security, equality and mutual benefits;

(ii)     diversifying and multilateralizing cooperation with foreign investors in the field of S&T;

(iii)     developing the market of S&T in Vietnam under the law, the standards and integrating with the world market;

(iv)     Selectively absorbing the experience of SACs and SPCs, maximizing the advantage opportunities to improve scientific research and technological development, especially high technology. The action program which implements the Resolution No. 20-NQ / TW 01/11/2012 in the sixth meeting of the XI Central Committee of the Communist Party on science and technology development to serve the cause of industrialization and modernization in the socialist orientation economy market and international integration also emphasizes international cooperation in science and technology as one of six key tasks.

Thus, in steering perspective of the Party and State, there will be changes in S&T international cooperation—from passive to proactive, equal cooperating, diversifying and multilateralizing means of cooperation, developing S&T in depth, taking advantage of as many opportunities to access high technology as possible to develop the economic and leveraging Vietnam’s position in international arena.

Opportunities for Vietnam and some recommendations

More activities of international S&T cooperation will open up many opportunities for Vietnam to access advanced technologies in the world, contributing to the realization of the objectives set by the Party and State which lay out that in 2020, Vietnam will basically become a modern industrialized country.

Firstly, a shif in international S&T cooperation activities to Asia with the increasingly investment in S&T cooperation by China, particularly focusing on two groups of countries SACs and SDCs, increase the opportunities for Vietnam to cooperate with SACs and SPCs. China tends to expand investments in S&T and establish research centers in Southeast Asian countries to exploit the advantages here. At the same time, SACs and SPCs also want to increase their investment in this area to access China’s market with the Chinese + 1 strategy. With the geographic location advantage: sharing border with China—a huge and fast growing market with abundant human resources, Vietnam has many opportunities to attract investment flows, exploit foreign financial resources, management experience and manpower to improve its S&T capacity. However, to grasp these opportunities, Vietnam should have an effective legal framework regulating S&T investment and cooperation and improve quality of domestic labors, especially in the sciences and technology.

Secondly, MNCs are increasingly setting up their research centers in developing countries rather than developed countries as before. Therefore, if Vietnam attracts FDI inflows from MNCs, especially MNCs from the US, EU and Japan, its opportunities to learn advanced technologies will widen. To attract FDI of MNCs from SACs, first, Vietnam has to manage the protection mechanisms of intellectual property rights more effectively in order to strengthen the confidence of MNCs when bringing modern technologies into Vietnam. Second, Vietnam should also have specific strategies, policies and incentives (tax, human resources recruitment policies…) to attract FDI from MNCs. Third, to take advantage of these opportunities efficiently, Vietnam also needs to develop supporting industries because the most popular form of S&T cooperation which MNCs prefer is non-equity alliances, thus, the opportunities for Vietnam to learn technologies will be primarily through subcontracting linkages with MNCs.

Thirdly, international S&T cooperation is still taking place primarily between researchers and academics. Therefore, Vietnam should actively participate and build networks of S&T researchers in the region and the world like VINAREN, GLORIAD, and APAN. Vietnam should boost the efficiency of the operation of the S&T network of Vietnamese overseas representative offices, enable Vietnamese scientists and researchers to join regional and international forums, networks, and research cooperation mechanisms, attract Vietnamese overseas, foreign experts and scientists to participate in programs, research projects and form strong research team in Vietnam, focus on young science research teams. This is an effective channel to transfer S&T knowledge and has far – reaching effects because various research results initiated in these cooperation mechanisms are basic research and applied research which can be applied and developed in many different fields.

Fourthly, the cooperation through transferring, licensing or franchising intellectual property rights is growing. This is an approach many developing countries have applied to quickly obtain the technologies needed for economic development, shorten the gap in the level of S&T with developing countries. This mode not only save time but also reduces costs and risks in research. Therefore, when mapping out the short-term and long-term S&T development strategies, Vietnam should consider its S&T capacity as well as its economic development needs to choose an appropriate mode of cooperation for each stage. Vietnam can implement policies to support technological innovation enterprises, especially high technology, through patents acquisition in priority sectors; and promote commercializing the results of scientific research and developing technologies in Vietnam through organizing regional and international S&T conferences and workshops.

 Source: Summarized and Translated