Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has officially declared May 18 as theVietnam Science and Technology Day in a bid to honour the greatcontributions of scientists to the national revolution, protection anddevelopment.

In his remarks at the launching ceremony in Hanoi onMay 18, PM Dung emphasized that science and technology must serve as adriving force for the current process of economic restructuring andgrowth model transformation towards higher productivity, quality andcompetitiveness of the economy and convert Vietnam into anindustrialized country, the Government news portal reported.

Accordingly,PM Dung urged the sector to focus realizing the Resolution on scienceand technology development which was adopted at the 6th Plenum of the11th Party Central Committee.

Social sciences and humanitiesshould be developed vigorously. Basic sciences such as mathematics,physics, life science, marine science of which Vietnam has advantagesshould be enhanced.

The Government leader also emphasized theimportance of mobilizing social resources especially from the businesscircle for strengthening scientific and technological capacity inproduction and business.

He called for renovating the mechanismsof managing science and technology operations and quick promulgation ofspecific preferential policies for talented scientists, includingVietnamese and foreign scientists and experts residing abroad.

Thescience and technology market needs to be developed in the direction offormulating organizations which provide technical services, science andtechnology transfer, consultancy, and evaluation.

A national database on science and technology also needs be built to connect demand and supply on new products.

PM Dung also asked for expanding international cooperation in this field with strategic partners and advanced countries.-VNA