VietNamNet Bridge - The State budget every year funnels big money into national scientific research projects, but discoveries by scientists seem to have little significance in the eyes of businesses.

Under the scientific research projects, many inventions and useful solutions have been discovered, and many of them have been registered to the National Office of Intellectual Property (NOIP) for patent protection. However, businesses are indifferent to information about the discoveries.

Nguyen Huy Van, Deputy general director of Traphaco, a pharmacy firm, commented: “Scientists only show their initial ideas.”

Van’s words show a problem of Vietnam’s science: most of the discoveries are just initial research results, and have not been developed in a way to become technologies which can be utilized in production and business. 

In other words, scientists’ works can show good results at laboratories. However, they are still far from being brought into life.

The State budget every year funnels big money into national scientific research projects, but discoveries by scientists seem to have little significance in the eyes of businesses.

Pham Xuan Mai from Truong Hai Automobile, a 100 percent Vietnamese owned enterprise, also said at a recent workshop on the amendment of the technology transfer law that the technologies transferred from professional manufacturers are quite different from the ones transferred from researchers.

Therefore, Mai said, enterprises would rather buy technologies from overseas than rely on domestic technologies, because it is safer to do this.

Agreeing with the viewpoint, Ho Si Thoang, former CEO of PetroVietnam, the national oil and gas group, noted the problem is that scientists do not have money to continue their research works after they have some initial achievements.

The Vietnam Academy of Science & Technology in the past fulfilled the research work on a surface active agent which helps oil collection. However, the invention has been put aside. 

Thoang said everyone knows the surfactant would be very useful in the oil & gas exploitation activities. 

But PetroVietnam did not want to spend money to buy the research, because the state-owned enterprise could only buy if it was sure it was ‘useable’. 

A scientist admitted that Vietnamese businesses were not interested in domestic inventions, because though they have ‘reasonable prices’, businesses would still have to spend 5-7 more years to experience technologies, while risks exist. 

“Enterprises don’t want to wait, because they have to compete fiercely with rivals every day and every hour in the market. Meanwhile, waiting does not always brings success,” he said.

However, though understanding well what businesses want, scientists cannot satisfy businesses’ requirements. It is beyond scientists’ capability to develop initial research achievements into technologies which allow products to be made on an industrial scale.

Tran Viet Hung, deputy chair of the Vietnam Union of Science & Technology Associations (VUSTA), noted that scientists had not received financial support, which is needed to develop their ideas.

Tia Sang