From 2014, the revised Law on Science and Technology is effective withmany new changes and is expected to create new development for Vietnam’sscience and technology. Report by the Vietnam Economic News.

Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Quan said: “This is animportant legal foundation to implement breakthroughs for scientific andtechnological research and application and reduce the brain-drain.”

T he Law on Science and Technology was first enacted in 2000and became effective from January 1, 2001. Since then, there have beenmany changes to the country as Vietnam have become a member of the WorldTrade Organisation (WTO) and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation(APEC) forum, actively involved in the Association of Southeast AsianNations (ASEAN) activities and rose from an underdeveloped to amiddle-income country. After the law, the ministry also drafted andsubmitted seven more acts to the National Assembly (NA) for approval.

Therefore, in face of the requirements of the new situation, this lawwas revised to create a legal basis for science and technology operationand management mechanisms. The revised law focuses on three majorissues: investment in resources for science and technology, financialmechanisms for sci-tech activities, and treatment policies for theworking staff.

“These are three core issues of not only therevised Law on Science and Technology but also of a scientific andtechnological development strategy," the minister affirmed.

He analysed that in terms of investment, the development of science andtechnology is mainly based on the state with not very large number ofenterprises investing in science. In the annual total funding forscience of more than 1 billion USD, that from the state budget isapproximately 700 million USD and the remaining, from enterprises. Thisis completely different in developed countries where most of the moneyfor scientific and technological research comes from businesses, and thestate funding is only about 25-30 percent to pay for basic research andresearch projects of strategic importance.

Particularly, there’sa fact that the Ministry of Science and Technology cannot regulate the 2percent of the state budget investment for science and technology dueto too many management agencies but it has to assume responsibilitybefore the Government and the National Assembly for this amount ofcapital.

Quan said in reality, the ministry administers only10-11 percent of the 2 percent national spending in science andtechnology and the remaining 90 percent are of other ministries,sectors, provinces and cities and are spent following allocations of theMinistry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Finance. For thisreason, it is very difficult for the Ministry of Science and Technologyto assume responsibility for the efficiency of the state’s fundingspending on science and technology.

As for the financialmechanism, for a long time, the Ministry of Science and Technology stillhad to work out the annual financial plans and budget estimates forscientific tasks. However, it takes about one year and a half to get thestate funding to carry out their works. During that period, manygenerations of mobile phones were brought into the world, for example,and many projects then were considered backward.

Not to mentionthe price fluctuation, the increased prices of scientific equipmentalong with many other expenses created difficulties for scientists.Payment procedures were also complicated, therefore scientific unitshave to turn back certain amount of the state funding to the statebudget as it could not be disbursed. In addition, what the Vietnamesescientists need most at this time is to have labs, research equipmentand documents and if possible is more rights to use the state budget andappoint staff to different posts.

The revised Law on Science andTechnology specified that in addition to the two percent allocationfrom the State budget, enterprises have to partly extract their pre-taxprofit to reinvest in research and development (R&D) through theirsci-tech development funds or contributions to the sector or localsci-tech development funds. However, they will also get loans from thestate funding with preferential interest rates or other assistance tohave the loans.

Management and use of the state funding forsci-tech research are also basically revised through the establishmentof the National Science and Technology Development Fund and othersimilar funds at provincial level. In addition, every organisations andindividuals have rights to offer their research ideas via theirprojects. On that basis, sci-tech organisations will gather and selectthe ideas and place orders on scientists. This model is seen as anoptimal choice to attach sci-tech research with practical issues.

Particularly, for the first time the revised Law on Science andTechnology regulates that the Ministry of Science and Technology hasclear rights and responsibilities for planning, suggesting the fundingsources to implement sci-tech tasks as well as administering andmonitoring the efficient use of these sources on a national scale. Otherministries and sectors will only play cooperative roles regarding theirprofessionalism. The revised law also enables high-level scientists toinvest material facilities and human resources to realise their ideas,encourage promotion for talented young scientists. They will also enjoypreferential treatments for individual income taxes from their incomesfrom sci-tech activities.

The new law also concretises a seriesof treatment policies in terms of salaries, bonuses for leading andhigh-talented scientists, overseas Vietnamese scientists andinternational experts who participate in research projects undertaken inVietnam. “The success ratio in implementing scientific projects inthe US does not exceed 20 percent. If Vietnam successfully adopts these‘breakthroughs’, we can expect our success ratio to be from 10-15percent,” Minister Quan said.-VNA