High expectations for innovation activities

Mr. Nguyen Hoa Cuong, Deputy Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management.

However, according to Mr. Nguyen Hoa Cuong, Deputy Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management, currently, the percentage of Vietnamese enterprises' revenue spent on science, technology and innovation is still very low, so it is very difficult to achieve innovation.

Recently, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 411/QD-TTg approving the "National strategy for development of the digital economy and digital society to 2025, with orientation to 2030". The strategy has set a basic target that by 2030; the share of the digital economy will reach 30% of GDP. How do you rate this goal?

This is a very ambitious goal. This shows that all sectors including the public sector or the business sector as well as analysts and experts have great expectations of the role of innovation in how to increase revenue, increase the potential of enterprises, and increase the contribution to GDP.

Science and technology can bring unpredictable changes. Although it is a bold and ambitious goal, in such a long period of time it is completely possible to achieve the set goal, even if the actual achievement is higher than the goal.

In your opinion, which are the fields and categories that have been witnessing the most effective innovation efforts?

Over the past two years, Vietnam has been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. This is undesirable, but it is actually a situation that creates pressure for many businesses, forcing them to change. When the market changes, customers change, the way of providing goods and services changes, and even competitors themselves change, businesses must change in order to survive.

Thus, innovation is almost mandatory for businesses. If enterprises are proactive, grasp and implement innovation first, they will have better survival and competitiveness capacity.

According to personal observations, one of the industry groups that has seen a lot of innovation activities is the industry group related to blockchain technology. In addition, the digital economy has been applied in many businesses and traditional industries such as real estate enterprises, e-commerce enterprises or enterprises in the field of transportation, warehousing. Most businesses have tried to apply a new technology platform.

Some argue that most Vietnamese enterprises have not properly assessed the importance and appropriate resources for innovation. What is your view?

A survey by the General Statistics Office (Ministry of Planning and Investment) shows that the percentage of Vietnamese enterprises' revenue spent on science, technology and innovation is just under 1%.

This is a very low number compared to the average of countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines, which is about 9% of revenue. In other countries like Korea and Japan, this figure is much higher, at about 30-50% of revenue.

Thus, the percentage of Vietnamese enterprises' revenue spent on science and technology for innovation is still very low, then it is difficult to expect a change, not to mention a breakthrough in innovation in the near future.

Human resources are very important to the effectiveness of innovation. Could you please tell us, how should we consider and calculate to develop human resources for innovation in Vietnam in the future?

Human resources are a very important issue. Human resources here not only pay attention to the search at a certain stage but must prepare and develop human resources at different stages.

Recently, in the field of education and training, there was Decision 1665/QD-TTg approving the project "Supporting students to start a business until 2025". The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs also has an integrated program of vocational training on how to improve skills. However, I think that perhaps Vietnam has not really set goals and focuses on human resource development towards serving innovation or serving the requirements of the Industrial Revolution 4.0.

Of course, there is also the good fortune that more and more students have entrepreneurial initiatives; there are start-ups that have gained remarkable achievements, even large companies that take many years to achieve.

Obviously, developing human resources to serve the needs of innovation is a matter for all parties such as state management agencies; agencies and organizations related to the human resource market. Enterprises must work together.

In the future, more attention should be paid to training human resources at all levels in order to better contribute to each value creation process of enterprises.