Development of Science in Vietnam
 The Ministry of Science and Technology plans to set up a national fund, from the state budget and voluntary contributions by organizations and individuals, to help small and medium-sized enterprises obtain and upgrade technologies, train their scientific and technical workforce, and help speed up technology transfers in poor rural and mountainous areas. According to the newspaper, the program will offer loans at low or no interest to eligible enterprises and provide them guarantees if they borrow from other sources for renewing technologies. According to the ministry, there are nearly 1,500 scientific research institutes and centers in the country which employ 2.6 million people, including 60,000 of those who directly do research. They were recognized in making cutting-edge innovations, including diagnostic equipment for diseases caused by viruses; providing domestic shipyards the technologies required to build ships of up to 100,000 tones; and the country has managed to send the Vinasat 1 satellite into space. Moreover, their works have helped Vietnam to become the world's second biggest exporter of coffee and rice. Addressing the Challenges: The government has acknowledged the challenges that the country is facing in science and research field. Recently quoted in an interview of Vietnam News Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Le Dinh Tien, said, "Despite such successes, there are barriers to the transfer and application of scientific and technical advancements…They are mainly the result of the low investment in science and technology by the government while the corporate sector seems to ignore research and application. The quality of science and research personnel is modest, with the country having few top experts". Christopher Runckel, Chairman of Delphi Health Services, a leading biotech company in Asia, reflected a somewhat different view, "Despite the fairly upbeat nature of the article - the reality is that government spending in this area is limited based on international and regional comparisons (say Singapore, Malaysia or even Thailand) and that at least to this point the money actually spent has not been spent in a way that really looks at the needs of Vietnamese science or requires accountability of Vietnamese scientific institutions and the building of lacking soft skills that are currently under-represented. Institutions use what funding is provided for oftentimes inappropriate technologies and for hard assets when oftentimes it is more training and building of human resources that would ultimately yield greater dividends. In this environment, business is not supporting this because they see Vietnam Science as being mostly out of date or ineffective". Mr. Runckel's views are not universal but are shared in part by some Vietnamese scientists. A foreign trained Vietnamese specialist commented that, "The Vietnamese government actually spends much money on science; however the funds did not work out well. The problems are with the system in which the people operate; and the government budget was allocated into the wrong places and without sufficient thought and study. Generally, in Vietnam, research centers work as working labs or departments for the government in science and research. Because of the bureaucracy in government rules and practices, scientists worked hard but have no real motivation. Scientists also earn very low salaries. This made them fit into the category of lower wage occupations in Vietnam; moreover, they are not being respected as the country's value now is leaning toward placing high-value on high salary career paths - businessmen and business women are seen as heroes - scientists as less talented or motivated. Secondly, the wrong allocation of funds: the government spent much money only for high tech equipment without good study of its use and potentials. It requires leaders in science to have broader knowledge and understanding of the equipment invested on. The research centers also are not independent in their finance, strategy and operation, but under the government's control." However, some improvements has been seen recently - research centers are now more independent. Following the decrees 115, the research centers can now operate similar to a private company. Businesses are now looking more to cooperate with scientists. The challenge comes down to the credibility of the research and findings. This is because there is no consistency in the results from various labs when you test for the same substance. Lack of international standards in science is a huge problem in Vietnam. Mr. Runckel, lastly, commented that, "Vietnamese Science can and should be fully the same level as its regional competitors like Thailand, Malaysia and others. Vietnamese scientists are just as competent and many have received first rate training. The problem for government and business is to better motivate scientific researchers, to improve their status, increase their soft skills and understanding of the needs of business. The government has a strong role to play in developing a well thought out master plan for better cooperation of business and science, for building up the human and technical capacity of government institutes and for providing increased funding for scholarships, education in math and science and basic science skills." Read
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