VietNamNet Bridge – Once operational, the Dong Nai Science Museum would be the first science museum in Vietnam to be built with the estimated expenses of $70 million.

The Dong Nai Science Museum would be a cultural and scientific institution with the function of providing and popularizing knowledge, educating and serving the scientific research through the activities of collecting, preserving and organizing exhibitions.

According to Pham Van Sang, Director of the Dong Nai Department of Science and Technology, unlike normal museums, science museums show the science and technology development level of a country.

The first science museum of Vietnam is expected to have the similar scale as the Thai Lan national museum of science which would cover an area of 250,000 square meters, comprising of five exhibition areas. It would be built on the land lot in Xuan Duong commune of Cam My district, nearly the biology-majoring high technology park. This is the area which has been reserved for the scientific urban area in the future.

The items to be displayed at the museum are in three systems – the fixed one, thematic and outdoors ones. The fixed display system’s items would be in seven topics, namely the history of science, basic science and the environment, natural science, science and the future, science and the life, nature sciences, Vietnam’s science and Dong Nai’s science.

The Dong Nai Museum of Science project is expected to kick off in 2015 and would be basically completed by 2018. The scientists who attended a workshop on developing the project some days ago, while emphasizing the need to build up a science museum, suggested that the Dong Nai museum of science should be developed into a national instead of a local museum.

Meanwhile, Dr. Nguyen Quan, Minister of Science and Technology, while believing that the Dong Nai museum of science would have much significance to the national science and technology. He has promised to gather all sources of strength to support Dong Nai to develop such a museum.

However, the scientists have expressed their worry about the specimens to be displayed, the budget to build the museum and the expenses to run it.

Vu Van Lien, former Director of the Vietnam Museum of Nature, said the Dong Nai authorities should pay more attention to looking for display items and preserving them.

He said the Hanoi Museum has been built with a very high investment capital, but there are not many specimens. Especially, some display items have to be carried away for maintenance regularly to fix the damages.

Nguyen Dong Anh, Head of the Mechanics Institute also said that Dong Nai needs to begin collecting specimen right now by buying back specimens or creating them, adding that a specimen can attract hundreds of viewers.

Lien has reminded the local authorities of Dong Nai of the place for the science museum. “It would be a big problem, if the museum is situated far from the city’s center,” he said, emphasizing that this should be the place where people and students can easily reach to with popular transport means.

In fact, scientists, though applauding the idea of developing the science museum in Dong Nai, have expressed their worry about the feasibility of the project.

“Dong Nai should learn the lesson from the Hanoi Museum, which has been built with a huge sum of money, but can only attract few visitors,” Anh said.

VNE