VietNamNet Bridge – More and more scientists and professionals have given up their scientific research works and left laboratories, leaving farmers undertaking some of the scientists’ works.

The Truong Sa submarine, designed and manufactured by Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hoa, a businessman in Thai Binh province.

Vietnam has 25,000 PhDs, a large and powerful staff of scientists. However, not all of them follow scientific studies: many of them now work as businessmen or have become management officers. The others work at research institutes, but do not carry out scientific research. They either do not do anything or focus on ways to earn extra money.

Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Quan admitted that there are not many Vietnamese scientists who have a passion for studying.

Quan said to the local press on the sidelines of the ongoing National Assembly’s session on November 17 that the current management mechanism does not encourage scientists to devote themselves to scientific research.

“The current policies are not encouraging enough to scientists,” he said.

Many scientists have given up their studies and become businessmen. Meanwhile, farmers are creating machines used in daily works.

The story of two Vietnamese farmers, Tran Quoc Hai and his son, in the Mekong River Delta, who successfully repaired armored cars and created new vehicles for the Cambodian army, has once again stirred up the public.

The problem is that Hai has never been highly appreciated in Vietnam and his inventions are not well known in Vietnam.

Local newspapers have also written about farmers who successfully invented helicopters, submarines, garbage incinerators and modern machines, but their inventions were never officially recognized by the appropriate agencies.

The “barefoot scientists”, as they are called by the public, cannot have their self-made helicopters and vehicles tested. As a result, they have to keep their inventions in “storage” for indefinite time.

Quan said there is no provision in legal documents which says state management agencies can give support to individuals who carry out scientific research with money from the state budget. Therefore, individuals can only call for support and investment from different sources in society.

Tran Quoc Hai, the man who made armored vehicles for the Cambodian army, said Cambodian agencies created favorable conditions for him to fulfill his works.

“All inventors are applauded there, in Cambodia, no matter if you have high education degrees or not. You won’t need to move heaven and earth to get licenses when you want to do research,” Hai said.

Quan said that if the Vietnamese policies were as open as the ones in Cambodia, Vietnamese people would be able to create inventions and do scientific research right in their homeland.

“I know many farmers do not have high education, but they are true scientists, because they are more enthusiastic than many scientists who have higher education degrees,” Quan said.

Dat Viet