Limited investment in research and poor management have hindered the development of science and technology in the country.
According to the Ministry of Science and Technology, there are 438
national research projects ongoing at the moment, and some have yielded
some practical results already in agriculture, new materials,
engineering and automation, environmental protection, and disaster
prevention, but their progress is reportedly not satisfactory.
The Ministry of Planning and Investment said besides slow progress, the
other problems are poor quality and lack of practicability.
Funding is also a problem since the outlay on science and technology has
never reached 2 percent of the Government’s spending as regulated. It
has been trailing off in recent years to 1.46 percent in 2012, 1.42
percent last year, and 1.36 percent this year.
As a result, many research projects are tardy.
In provinces and cities, more than 50 percent of the funds provided
for RD are usually spent on setting up facilities rather than
actual research.
“Two percent of State budget for research is
huge at a time when Vietnam faces a lot of difficulties, but the
investment is not efficient,” said Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, Deputy
Chairwoman of the National Assembly.
The allocation will remain
at 2 percent, but the spending efficacy has to be examined to achieve
better results, she added.
According to the Ministry of
Finance, the Government planned to spend nearly 13.7 trillion VND (652.3
million USD) on science and technology’s research and development this
year.
But of this, only around 6 trillion VND (285.7 million
USD) will go towards actual research while the rest will be spent on
administration.-VNA