Surge in Vietnam’s sci-tech market capacity

Perfecting institutions, policies

Vietnam has made impressive progress in innovation, science, and technology in recent years. The 2021 WIPO Global Innovation Index ranked Vietnam at the top of the world’s group of lower middle-income countries, ranking 44 out of 132 countries with more than 18,500 scientific and technological discoveries.

Vietnamese enterprises are placing more importance on technological innovation

A variety of Party and Government resolutions, new laws and mechanisms in recent years support the growing demand for technology and reduce reliance on imports. In addition, regulations were issued on developing innovative start-up ecosystems, including the use of science and technology funds at enterprises and tax incentives for investors in innovative startups.

According to the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST), the country’s science and technology (sci-tech) market has many prospects to operate actively on transaction floors.

Pham Duc Nghiem, Deputy Head of the National Agency for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Development of the MoST said that perfecting institutions and policies on sci-tech market development is key to creating a favorable legal environment for transactions, transfers, and trading of scientific R&D (research & development) and innovative results and products.

The Prime Minister has also issued a number of relevant policies, including the national science and technology market development program, the national program improving productivity and quality of products and goods of Vietnamese enterprises, the national program on high technology development, and more.

Increased value of sci-tech goods

As a result of better mechanisms and policies, the supply of sci-tech goods from domestic research institutes and universities has increased significantly, and the capacity of local enterprises to access, absorb and master advanced technologies has also been enhanced.

Currently, 800 intermediary organizations provide consultancies, brokerage services, incubators, promotion and technology transfer, including 20 technology transaction floors and one trading floor in the northern coastal region. The national database on sci-tech, and an industrial property data and service platform (IPPlatform.gov.vn) are also reported to be operating effectively.

The value of sci-tech goods has increased at an average annual rate of 20.9 percent, mostly in the fields of food processing, finance and banking, electronics and computers.

The MoST also built a portal (http://db.vista.gov.vn/) to provide necessary information on technology supplies both domestically and internationally, including scientific publications, results of sci-tech tasks, as well as information on intellectual property (IP).

In addition, Vietnamese enterprises are paying more attention to R&D and innovation, with total investment almost doubling from VND18.5 trillion in 2016 to nearly VND36.5 trillion in 2020.

According to the national science and technology market development program, the annual value of sci-tech goods transactions will increase by an average of 25 percent by 2025, and over 30 percent for a number of key export sectors and industries.

By 2030, the transaction value of sci-tech goods will increase 30 percent per year on average, and over 35 percent for a number of key export sectors and industries. The proportion of IP transactions will exceed 20 percent, and that of imported technology transactions and technology transactions by domestic research institutes and universities will reach 35 and over 40 percent, respectively.