Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh: Perfecting institutions for all people to participate in innovation

Afternoon of December 14, in Hanoi,Prime Minister Pham Minh ChinhAttend and speak at the program "TECHFEST and WHISE 2021 Imprint". This is the key event in the series of activities of the National Innovation and Startup Festival TECHFEST 2021 combined with the Ho Chi Minh City Innovation and Startup Week (WHISE 2021), organized by the Ministry of Science and Technology in coordination with the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and many other units from September 2021 to December 2021.

The event was connected online with many domestic and international bridges. Also attending at the Hanoi bridge were Minister of Science and Technology Huynh Thanh Dat, Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Science, Technology and Environment Le Quang Huy, Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Culture and Education Nguyen Dac Vinh, Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan, etc.

Within the framework of the program, delegates attended a high-level dialogue forum with the theme "Developing an open innovative startup ecosystem". Sharing the country's experience, Mr. Nadav Eshcar, Ambassador of Israel to Vietnam, said that a strategic element of Israel is mobilizing state capital for research and development activities. "We spend up to 4.9% of GDP on research and development and have an innovation agency. This is equivalent to a Ministry to coordinate the innovation ecosystem," he said, adding that this agency provides forms of support and incentives for startups. Israel's lesson also shows that state mechanisms and policies are much more valuable than state material support for innovation activities.

According to Minister Huynh Thanh Dat, in 2021, despite the complicated developments of the pandemic, financial resources for innovative startups in Vietnam increased to an unprecedented level. More than 1.5 billion USD has been recorded as investment for Vietnamese innovative startups, the highest ever. In the ecosystem, there are currently more than 1,000 organizations with the capacity to support startups, more than 140 universities and colleges organizing innovative startup activities, and large enterprises and corporations also actively participate in these activities. In 2021, Vietnam ranked 44th out of 132 countries and economies in global innovation, continuing to hold the top position among 34 low-middle-income countries.

Minister Huynh Thanh Dat said that one of the highlights of Vietnam's innovative startup ecosystem is that it has gradually formed networks of connections, promoting the flow of knowledge and technology at home and abroad. He said that this is the time to accelerate and promote the connection of domestic and foreign resources to create momentum for development. The ecosystem is not only an environment, but must become a platform for the development of its components, a place to connect the supply and demand for innovation.

“The Ministry of Science and Technology believes that the scale and operational efficiency of Vietnam's national innovative startup ecosystem will be increasingly expanded and enhanced; attracting more and more domestic and foreign resources; and making more and more practical contributions to the country's socio-economic development goals,” said the Minister.

Emphasizing the message of “listening and sharing” when attending the event, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh stated that although the Party and State’s guidelines, policies, and laws have not been completed, they are basically sufficient to promote innovative startups. We need to organize and implement them synchronously and effectively in the coming time. The Resolution of the 13th National Congress clearly affirmed: “Strongly develop science and technology, innovation and digital transformation and create breakthroughs in productivity, quality, efficiency and competitiveness”, “Fast and sustainable development based mainly on science and technology, innovation and digital transformation”.

Sharing with delegates some thoughts and concerns about innovation, the Prime Minister expressed his impression of the very meaningful results of innovation activities in 2021, which faced many difficulties, affirming the efforts and rise of innovation and creative startups. However, these results are still modest, not as expected, we need a stronger and more extensive innovation movement. The Prime Minister gave an example that Vietnam is not among the 15 Southeast Asian technology startup unicorns that successfully raised capital, valued at 1 billion USD or more in 2021.

The Prime Minister stated that the results achieved were thanks to closely following the Party's guidelines and policies, which were concretized by the State's policies and laws; the efforts, attempts, and striving of innovative entities; and the coordination and association within and outside the country.

The second issue shared by the Prime Minister is the important role of innovation in the process of movement and development. He stated that innovation is an objective requirement for development for any country, any field, any stage, any person, without innovation there can be no development.

Regarding the basic goals of innovation, the Prime Minister emphasized that innovation must effectively serve the goals set by the 13th National Party Congress and Party Congresses at all levels; contribute to making all people prosperous and happy, leaving no one behind; contribute to protecting the independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, and peaceful life of the people; contribute to affirming Vietnam as a responsible member of the international community; demonstrate the intelligence and creativity of the Vietnamese people.

“Innovation must serve a rich people, a strong country, a prosperous and happy people, a peaceful country, and contribute to peace, stability, cooperation and development in the world,” the Prime Minister emphasized.

Regarding the viewpoint and approach to innovation that has a spillover effect, multiplies value, and brings practical results, the Prime Minister said that innovation is the cause of all people, so there must be an approach for all people. Innovation must be implemented synchronously, comprehensively, interconnectedly, comprehensively, and inclusively at all levels, sectors, localities, units, and enterprises; innovation must become a movement, inspiring and attracting the participation of everyone, regardless of age, region, gender, etc. Innovation must have a connection between individuals and collectives, with the whole country and the world, harmonizing personal interests, national and ethnic interests, and the common interests of humanity.

In the context of limited resources and time, the Prime Minister said that the implementation of tasks in the coming time needs to be focused and key. Firstly, it is necessary to effectively prevent, combat and control the epidemic to restore and develop the socio-economy. The prevention and control of the epidemic is unprecedented, so it requires innovation to suit the specific conditions of Vietnam, ensuring science, efficiency and savings, especially in implementing the three pillars of epidemic prevention and control (isolation, testing and treatment) and the motto "5K + vaccine + medicine + technology + raising people's awareness and other measures". The Government and ministries, branches and localities are constantly summarizing, supplementing and perfecting theories and measures for epidemic prevention and control.

The second task is to restore and develop the socio-economy. In this process, every agency, unit, every person in every industry, every profession, every level must think to find appropriate solutions in their fields and tasks.

The third task is to promote economic restructuring, shifting from extensive development to intensive development, from relying mainly on available resources and cheap labor to developing based on human intelligence, promoting outstanding opportunities, distinct potentials, and competitive advantages of the country, each industry, and each locality.

Fourth, innovation must go straight to the heart and contribute to solving emerging problems such as climate change (in the context of extreme, complex, severe, and irregular natural disasters); resource depletion (while human intelligence and creativity are limitless); population aging (to harmoniously solve immediate and long-term problems, meeting the needs of the present without affecting future generations); green development, clean energy; digital transformation, etc.

In particular, the Prime Minister noted that we should focus on promoting innovation in the fields of health, education, and agriculture - these are urgent issues for our country to improve health capacity in the context of the pandemic; develop human resources that can meet the requirements of working in an international environment; and enable farmers to participate in innovation, change their destiny and life. "We must be dedicated, responsible, passionate, enthusiastic, and attached to these fields," the Prime Minister shared.

Regarding solutions in the coming time, the Prime Minister stated that we must first pay attention to summarizing practices, accumulating and building data. The Prime Minister said that our database is still lacking and weak, so planning based on the database is very difficult. Innovation must be based on a good data foundation to be close to reality, going straight to the problems that life poses.

Second, focus on improving people's knowledge, training human resources, and nurturing talents to maximize the Vietnamese human resources - the most valuable asset of the nation, the decisive factor in the development process, and the cause of all causes. People must have the desire and aspiration for innovation and creativity and have the qualities and foundation for innovation.

Third, stick to reality, respect reality, start from reality, use reality as a measure to promptly detect practical problems, constantly amend, supplement, and perfect institutions, mechanisms, and policies, "solve the problem of everyone participating in innovation". Promote reform, simplify administrative procedures, strengthen decentralization along with inspection, supervision and reasonable allocation of resources, and improve the capacity of staff. Have effective mechanisms to mobilize resources, promote public-private partnership, take State resources to lead and activate all resources in society.

Other important solutions are to form a science market and an innovation market to connect supply and demand, ensuring healthy competition; make appropriate investments in start-up businesses; strengthen international cooperation to participate in the global supply chain and value chain on the basis of mutual benefit...

The Prime Minister expressed his gratitude for the comments on mechanisms and policies at the program, affirming that the Government, ministries and sectors will listen, absorb and always accompany businesses, contributing to the ultimate goal of a strong and prosperous country, where all people are warm, happy, no one is left behind and actively contribute to the international community.