The Vietnam–Finland Innovation Partnership Programme (IPP) has
effectively linked researchers, businesses and managers in both
countries as they bid to promote technology innovation in enterprises
and establish more new hi-tech firms.
Vietnam’s Deputy Minister
of Science and Technology Tran Viet Thanh hailed the progress at a
conference in Hanoi on June 20 reviewing the first phase of the IPP,
which ran between 2009 and 2013 at a cost of over seven million EUR
funded by the Vietnamese and Finnish Governments.
Thanh said
that the programme has already helped Vietnam to perfect its legal
framework in science and technology and bring scientific products and
inventions to the market. He added that the IPP has served as a bridge
cementing the friendly cooperation between Vietnam and Finland.
He expressed his hope that the Finnish Government will continue
assisting Vietnam in the second phase of the IPP in order to reform
science and technology development mechanisms and generate hi-tech
products for the market.
Recommendations to improve efficiency during the next phase were also tabled at the conference.
One aspect of the IPP is the strengthening of Vietnam’s National
Innovation System (NIS), which is deemed as a tool to develop firms’
competitiveness.-VNA