It will be necessary to attract foreign companies to set up research offices in Vietnam and create jobs for university graduates.

Since the early 1990s, Vietnam’s GDP has been growing fast, and the country is among the world’s fastest growing economies in the world. The result is attributed to the country’s policy on opening up the economy, integrating with the world, with incentives offered to investors, as well as its natural resources and a cheap labor force.

Nevertheless, when science, technology and innovation now act as a driving force for rapid and sustainable economic development, cheap labor is no longer an advantage.

Also, natural resources are getting exhausted and global policies, including the global minimum tax scheme, pose great challenges for Vietnam. 

Therefore, the country has to seek new driving forces for development.

To do this in the new circumstances, Vietnam needs to focus on two important factors. 

First, high-quality human resources. This will serve as a firm launching pad to bolster socio-economic development. Higher education establishments need to develop high-quality human resources who can satisfy requirements.

Second, it is necessary to focus on investment, science and technology, and innovation. The strategy on developing science, technology and innovation to 2030 issued in 2022 emphasizes that this is the leading national policy which will make a strategic breakthrough in the new period and serve as the major motivation for growth.

One of the objectives of the strategy is to enhance the contribution of science and technology and innovation to economic growth through universities’ scientific research and technological development activities.

Basic sciences are among the fields considered the backbone of the economy and the country’s modernization and industrialization.

However, it is difficult to enroll students in basic science majors. Generally, universities cannot find enough students every year, which is a problem the education sector is facing.

Vietnam still cannot attract many large international enterprises and economic groups to set up their R&D (research and development) centers in Vietnam. The enterprises just establish production bases, and manufacturing, outsourcing and assembling facilities in Vietnam.

Meanwhile, Vietnamese enterprises, for several reasons including limited financial capability, still don’t pay enough attention to R&D. Vietnam still cannot create a space and working environment that attracts science and technology graduates.

Currently, basic science graduates mostly work in state-owned science and technology institutions with modest incomes which are not commensurate with their ability and expectations.

Only when enterprises become aware of the importance of R&D activities and understand that research and development is the key to productivity improvement will schools think of enrolling more students as science and technology majors.

The reports by the World Bank show that the number and proportion of R&D workers in Vietnam has changed very little in quantity and quality over the last 10 years (2010-2020).

Analysts have noticed the difference in the allocation of research budgets to universities and institutes.

In 2019, higher education establishments contributed 50 percent of the workforce for R&D with doctorates, and 50 percent with master’s degrees, but they could only get about 16 percent of the state budget for human resources, and less than 7 percent of total investment capital from different sources.

Meanwhile, research institutes or national research agencies got 44 percent and 17 percent, respectively.

To meet practical needs in the new circumstances, the labor force needs to be well trained to have solid knowledge and skills to quickly adapt to new conditions. This requires commitments and companionship between enterprises and universities in defining the demand and recruitment of personnel for R&D at deserving rates of remuneration. 

The State should give priority to expand investment and order universities to develop basic sciences, thereby building a contingent of researchers with researching capability suitable to the demand, because basic sciences are the platform for science and technology of every country.

Vu Hai Quan

Member of the Party Central Committee, Director of Vietnam National University, HCM City