Awareness of the role of institutions in science and technology development is raised.
Resolution 57 dated December 22, 2024 of the Politburo has proposed the viewpoint that developing science and technology, innovation and national digital transformation is the top important breakthrough, the main driving force to rapidly develop modern productive forces, perfect production relations, innovate national governance methods, develop the socio-economy, prevent the risk of falling behind, and bring the country to breakthrough development and prosperity in the new era; at the same time, identifying institutions as a prerequisite to be perfected and one step ahead.
It can be affirmed that awareness of the role of institutions in development has been raised in the fields of science and technology, innovation and digital transformation immediately after the issuance of Resolution 57. That awareness has turned into a revolution in building creative institutions.
Statistics from the Central Steering Committee show that in the first 9 months of 2025, the National Assembly and agencies have completed a huge amount of work with 17 laws promulgated, including laws of special importance such as: Law on Science, Technology and Innovation, Law on Digital Technology Industry, Law on Personal Data Protection... Along with that, there are 4 Resolutions on piloting specific mechanisms, 56 Government decrees, 60 circulars and more than 700 documents at local levels issued to clear bottlenecks and resources.
These figures demonstrate the high political determination of the Party, National Assembly, Government and agencies in creating a legal corridor for the digital age and knowledge economy.
Institutional bottlenecks still exist in the field of science and technology.
However, in a constructive spirit, we also frankly acknowledge the existing institutional bottlenecks in the fields of science and technology, innovation and digital transformation.
Firstly, the bottleneck is reflected in financial management thinking. Although on the basis of Resolution 57, the National Assembly issued Resolution 193, then the Government issued Decree 88, and localities also issued a number of policy mechanisms, but in reality, finance for science and technology is still "tying up" creativity.
We are still managing research activities with an administrative mindset, with invoices and documents. Perhaps behind that administrative mindset is a lack of trust or a fear of responsibility and perfectionism of the management agency. This makes scientists spend a lot of time explaining documents and documents rather than focusing on research, affecting breakthroughs in research activities.
According to preliminary statistics in the research of the Central Policy and Strategy Committee, by August 2025, the current disbursement of the national budget for science and technology has reached an average of 60% of the assigned plan. In particular, many localities are major locomotives, playing a very important role such as Hanoi has only disbursed 18%, Can Tho has only reached about 30%.
Currently, the country has 36 local science and technology development funds, but only 14/36 funds have disbursed. The total capital allocated to these 36 funds is only 856,495 billion VND, which is equivalent to about 5 km of highway with the current investment rate. And the disbursement until April 2025 is very low, in which the total disbursement of the new funds is only 398 billion VND out of the total 14/36 funds that have disbursed. Many localities play an important role, but the disbursement rate is 0 VND. The very important technological drivers shown in the local science and technology promotion model have a very low or zero disbursement rate.
So, the question is why, in terms of policy and pilot resolutions, the implementation of the Science and Technology Fund to create leverage for local science and technology has been so slow? This is the problem that requires a comprehensive review of the synchronization in the implementation of Resolutions and Decrees to solve this problem and hit the bottlenecks in operating very important models.
Resolution 57 and the Resolution of the National Assembly have pointed out two very important issues, in which science must accept risks - has been institutionalized but currently implemented very cautiously by localities. The reason is because it requires synchronization from mechanisms, policies, laws with regulations on inspection and responsibility.
If risks occur in the future and inspection and handling are still carried out as they are now, the departments and councils will be very hesitant. Therefore, this must be implemented very synchronously from the general regulations in handling, synchronously from the Party to the State's operations, then scientists and science managers will be confident in accepting risks in decisions because they cannot successfully undertake all scientific tasks.
Second , the commercialization of intellectual property and technology transfer still faces many difficulties from an institutional perspective. We have been concerned for many years about the situation where many scientific research results from the state budget have to be kept in drawers. The reasons may be due to the entanglement of regulations on public asset valuation, the complicated process of determining intellectual property rights, and the lack of regulations to promote the granting of credit to enterprises based on intellectual property rights.
Third , there are still legal gaps for new technologies, new issues, and new models. In the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and digital technologies, Vietnamese businesses want to develop but are still cautious because of the lack of specific decisions, including regulations on AI ethics and mechanisms to monitor risky AI systems.
The issuance of controlled testing policy mechanisms has been mentioned many times since Resolution 52 of the Politburo dated May 27, 2019 to Resolution 41 and Resolution 68 recently, but in general it is still slow.
Need to improve legal frameworks in science, technology and innovation
International experience shows that institutions are an important key to science and technology, innovation and digital transformation. Therefore, it is necessary to perfect the legal frameworks that are crucial to implementing intellectual property financing, and clear regulations on ownership, registration and enforcement of intellectual property rights.
From international experience and practice, I propose the following solutions.
Firstly , it is necessary to continue to deeply innovate the thinking of law-making, strongly shifting from management and control thinking to development-creating thinking. In the fields of science and technology, innovation, and digital transformation, the legislative approach needs to continue to be innovative.
Second , it is urgent to complete a synchronous legal framework for science and technology, digital transformation and innovation. Fundamental laws such as land, state budget, public investment law and enterprise law need to be reviewed and amended in a transparent direction, cutting down procedures to create conditions for AI projects and technology enterprises to develop.
Decrees and circulars to guide the implementation of newly issued specialized laws must be designed in a unified and synchronous manner, avoiding overlap and creating initiative.
Third , the intellectual property regime must be comprehensively upgraded to become the foundation of the knowledge-based economy.
Fourth , the bottlenecks and bottlenecks in financial resources need to be resolved through a drastic, substantive and effective mechanism for mobilizing and allocating financial resources. This requires the synchronous implementation of tax and credit incentives for AI and creative startups. In particular, it is necessary to fundamentally change legal and policy mechanisms and support policies for small and medium-sized enterprises in innovation and digital transformation.
Finally , institutions can only be promoted when they are operated by an effective, transparent and responsible enforcement apparatus. It is necessary to deploy a monitoring and evaluation system based on databases and KPIs, updated in real time to handle problems. Promote decentralization and delegation of authority and take the satisfaction of businesses and people as the measure of effectiveness.
Synchronously implementing the above contents will create a strong institutional push, remove inherent barriers, and unleash the country's creative potential.
Source: https://daibieunhandan.vn/pho-truong-ban-chinh-sach-chien-luoc-trung-uong-nguyen-duc-hien-chuyen-manh-tu-tu-duy-quan-ly-kiem-soat-sang-tu-duy-kien-tao-phat-trien-10396671.html
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