‘Need a pragmatic approach to strategic technology development’

At the Strategic Dialogue Forum on Establishing a New Growth Model taking place on June 25, many experts, business representatives and international organizations outlined ways for Vietnam to seize development opportunities through science and technology.

Mr. Nguyen Van Khoa, General Director of FPT Group, said that if we can turn strategic technology orientation into products and markets, in the next 5 years, Vietnam has the opportunity to transform from a manufacturing center into a pioneering technology innovation center in the region.

FPT representatives said that to realize this great opportunity, it is necessary to identify implementation groups corresponding to each strategic technology. Specifically, each group includes a coordinating agency, businesses with enough nuclear capacity, research forces from institutes, universities and international partners. This group also needs to have clear goals, budgets, deadlines and outputs – who the product is selling to, what problem it solves. The state plays the role of building computing infrastructure, testing, and shared databases.

“Vietnam does not need to become a country that invents technology, but should become a country with the best coordinated organization, fastest application on a large scale, and products to supply to domestic and foreign markets,” Mr. Khoa recommended.

However, he also recognized that the biggest bottleneck in technology transformation lies not in purchasing equipment or software, but in the process and especially the people. Accordingly, he proposed: “The state and large businesses must be customers of new technology.”

Giving suggestions on attracting many businesses to participate in developing and bringing technology to the market, Mr. Le Hong Minh, co-founder and Chairman of VNG, said that Vietnamese technology businesses are completely capable of finding development opportunities and market demand in the global market.

According to him, when the government plays a role in creating a favorable environment for testing new technology and business ideas, many businesses will proactively participate. “At that time, it is possible to select the best performing businesses to invest more and help them expand their scale,” he said.

Mr. Martin Wermelinger, Head of the Investment Department of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), agreed that creating an environment can be through financial incentives when businesses invest in R&D, attract human resources or develop skills for the domestic workforce in priority technology fields. ”It is necessary to create conditions to make it easier to participate in business in these fields,” he said.

Business representatives all said that current policies such as Resolution 68 on the private economy and Resolution 57 on science and technology have created important shifts, placing technology and digital transformation at the center. However, market issues and needs need to be more “pragmatic”. In which, Mr. Nguyen Manh Tuong, CEO of Momo, stated that Momo’s lesson when expanding the market is to offer simple, easy-to-apply technology solutions so that users do not feel “burdened”.

The strategic dialogue forum with the theme Establishing a new growth model: Promoting strategic technologies to enhance competitiveness and sustainable growth was organized by the Ministry of State in collaboration with the Weatherhead East Asia Institute, Columbia University and the US-ASEAN Business Council. The forum aims to create a mechanism for exchange between the state and businesses in the field of technology, and propose solutions to develop science, technology and innovation.