Harvest from a scientific meeting and discussion

On the occasion of Vietnam Science and Technology Day (May 18) this year, on the afternoon of May 20, the leaders of Da Nang city organized an intimate meeting to both express gratitude to scientists in the city and to acknowledge experts’ opinions through the scientific discussion “Tasks and solutions for developing high-quality human resources to meet the requirements of city development in the new era”. Attending the meeting as a historical scientist, I thought of two historical events.

One was on May 18, 1963, at the First National Congress of the Vietnam Association for the Dissemination of Science and Technology (the predecessor of the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations), Uncle Ho came to congratulate the congress and kindly advised: “We all know that our current level of science and technology is still low. Production methods have not been improved much. Working methods are still hard. Labor productivity is still low... The task of science is to strive to change those things... Science must produce itself and must return to serve production, serve the masses, in order to increase labor productivity and constantly improve people's lives, ensuring the victory of socialism...”.

Second, on June 18, 2013, at the 5th session of the 13th National Assembly , the Law on Science and Technology was passed, unanimously choosing May 18 every year as Vietnam Science and Technology Day. Since then, this event has been held annually to demonstrate the Party and State's attention to one of the two leading national policies and to the team of scientists who have continuously contributed their intelligence through high-quality research projects as well as through critical opinions rich in scientific content, full of intellectual enthusiasm and civic responsibility.

In the context that Da Nang is considered one of the leading localities in implementing Resolution No. 57-NQ/TW of the 13th Politburo on breakthroughs in science, technology, innovation and national digital transformation, choosing the topic of the discussion related to the development of high-quality human resources is considered to have touched on the most core point in effectively implementing not only Resolution No. 57-NQ/TW but also the "four pillars", the phrase General Secretary To Lam used to identify the four resolutions of the Politburo issued in the past half year.

First of all, on the topic of the discussion: Solutions for developing high-quality human resources. Development here includes two moves: self-training and attraction. The proposal of Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Vu, Director of Danang University, on soon building Danang into a "University City" shows that Danang has the capacity to undertake the move of self-training high-quality human resources. Of course, self-training is not only on-site training through the system of universities that are well-known in the area, but also investing the budget to send people to study at famous training institutions in the country as well as abroad.

Regarding attracting high-quality human resources, Da Nang and certainly not only Da Nang really hope that some of the breakthrough policies of the Politburo stated in Resolution No. 57-NQ/TW will soon be institutionalized, so that localities will have a favorable legal corridor to implement the "red carpet" policy to "attract, promote, and retain leading scientists, experts, and 'chief engineers' at home and abroad who are capable of organizing, operating, commanding, and implementing key national tasks on science and technology, innovation, digital transformation, development of artificial intelligence technology, and human resource training" as set out in Resolution No. 57-NQ/TW.

Attracting high-quality human resources to meet the requirements of city development in the new era is not only through rolling out the red carpet, inviting talented people to work in the locality but also through international exchanges on science and technology. I really appreciate the story of Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Thi Hoang, Deputy Director of Da Nang Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital, who is also a scientist who grew up from a project to develop high-quality human resources in Da Nang. She said that thanks to the cooperation in science and technology with Australian medical scientists, Da Nang Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital has achieved many more achievements in the profession, not to mention being supported with many useful medical devices such as continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) ventilators...

Da Nang has raised the issue of developing high-quality human resources since the second half of the 2000s with the establishment of the Center for High-Quality Human Resources Development under the City People's Committee before transferring it to the Department of Home Affairs, simultaneously paying attention to both sources of sending people for training and inviting people who have been trained. In reality, the first source helps localities be more proactive in creating resources according to the major/field they need, but the obvious disadvantage is that it takes time to wait for people to return from training.

The second source may not have to wait, but the specialty/field of the person invited to the "red carpet" may not really be suitable for the specialty/field the locality needs, and more importantly, the move to roll out the red carpet to attract is only one of the three stages mentioned in Resolution No. 57-NQ/TW, attracting, promoting and retaining, in which promoting is the most core solution to retain the attracted person.

Speaker Tran Van Tho, a native of Quang Nam who is now an honorary professor at Waseda University in Japan, left a deep impression with his erudite presentation on the Vietnamese economy in the face of world fluctuations. Listening to him speak in his Quang Nam accent, which has remained virtually unchanged after more than half a century of living abroad, I was very impressed with the “economic model of Hefei”, the capital of Anhui province, China. As Mr. Tran Van Tho assessed, thanks to the breakthrough policy of supporting businesses in industries such as electric vehicles, solar panels and other technological products, Hefei has transformed from the capital of a province in a poor agricultural area in the past, to quickly rise in income rankings and become a model for Chinese cities…

Finally, on the question of who is considered a high-quality human resource. I really appreciate the opinion of Dr. Nguyen Nhat Quang, co-author of the book How to transform digitally? (with Professor Ho Tu Bao, Information and Communication Publishing House, winner of the B prize of the 6th National Book Award in 2023) when he emphasized the need to distinguish "high quality" from "high level" and "high degree".

Recently, on the Urban People e-magazine, there was an article titled "Vietnamese Confucianism - a new feature of Vietnamese Confucianism" by Dr. Tran Hau Yen The, who stated that "among countries with the same culture, the history of Confucianism in Vietnam has a very special phenomenon, the scholars are also the founders of the profession; they are honored by the people for their contributions to the teaching of handicraft techniques" and therefore, Confucianism is also highly appreciated by the Vietnamese people, such as Confucian Rites, Confucian Literature, Confucian Art, etc.

BUI VAN TIENG

Source: https://baodanang.vn/xa-hoi/202505/thu-hoach-tu-mot-cuoc-gap-mat-va-toa-dam-khoa-hoc-4007569/