Great changes expected for sci-tech and innovation

With that profound awareness, this law embraces significant changes, demonstrating a fundamental shift in thinking and development orientation.

It clearly affirms the fundamental role of science and technology as the key factor and driving force to enhance national competitiveness, promote socioeconomic development, ensure national defence and security and improve the quality of people’s lives.

Innovation, for the first time, is included in the law and placed on par with science and technology. This is a fundamental change in development thinking. While sci-tech is a professional realm of scientists, focusing on research and development of new knowledge and technology, innovation is a process involving everyone.

With the law, we strongly shift management thinking from controlling processes and inputs to managing results and output efficiency, accepting risks. The focus of state management is no longer on the implementation method, but on the research results and practical impact. There is a mechanism for controlled pilot, accepting risks in research. Overall efficiency will be measured, using results as the basis for resource allocation.

The law establishes a clear direction for the transition from a country that mainly uses technology to mastering strategic technologies. These technologies have a major impact on economic growth and national security. State budget investment will be focused and prioritised for the tasks of mastering strategic technologies, instead of being widely used as did in the past. This task will be assigned to capable and reputable enterprises and research organisations.

As stated in the law, sci-tech and innovation will take the market and product orientation as the driving force, as the orientation for technology development and identify related research problems. This method will help these areas become more closely linked to practical needs and create practical values.

Under the law, the country will invest in developing higher education institutions into centres for scientific research, technology development and innovation, gradually forming high-level research centres associated with high-quality human resource training, ensuring effective coordination with the network of specialised research institutes.

We are shifting the focus of technology development to enterprises. For the first time, the law has a separate chapter to regulating policies to encourage research and development (R&D) activities in enterprises. They are strongly encouraged to invest in R&D, not only with their own resources but also with support from the state budget according to the seed capital principle. Such R&D expenses will be accounted for as production and business costs, and are also tax-deductible.

The law also aims to balance natural and social science research, encouraging inter-sectoral collaboration. This is to ensure that technological development is closely linked to core human ethical values. The law clearly distinguishes the approach between scientific research and technological development, focusing more on technological development to create rapid impact, while still maintaining the foundation of basic research.

We aim to develop science and technology in a complete and balanced ecosystem. This ecosystem includes institutions, technical infrastructure, personnel, and entities such as enterprises, research institutes, universities, scientists, financial institutions, intermediary organisations, innovation centres, and venture capital funds.

In particular, the state plays a role investing in the construction of key laboratories, shared laboratories, supporting information, standards, intellectual property, issuing preferential financial mechanisms, and supporting innovation enterprises, while attracting domestic and foreign experts. Coordination among entities will create a foundation for a strong and effective connection of the entire national innovation ecosystem.

We are also carrying out comprehensive digital transformation in sci-tech activities and management. R&D organisations will use the national digital platform to manage related tasks and other types of expenditure using the state budget.

The law is shifting from a pre-control to post-control model, drastically cutting administrative procedures and replacing them with digital management, thereby improving operational efficiency, transparency, and long-term monitoring capabilities.

We expect that the innovations in this law, together with the cooperation of society, will bring Vietnam to new heights.

Businesses and experts are proposing changes to the draft law on science, technology, and innovation to create an enabling legal environment.