Remove all barriers to scientific and technological development and innovation.

Science and technology, innovation, and digital transformation play a key role and are powerful drivers for Vietnam's accelerated, breakthrough, and sustainable development, helping Vietnam catch up with and progress alongside developed countries.

Three things that need to be done quickly and effectively.

On the morning of January 13th, at the National Conference on the implementation of Resolution No. 57 of the Politburo on breakthroughs in the development of science, technology, innovation, and national digital transformation, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh reported on the main contents of the Government's Action Program to implement the Resolution.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh reports at the conference (Photo: VGP).

According to the Prime Minister, in the new era, science and technology and innovation are closely linked to digital transformation; this is an objective and inevitable connection. In this context, science and technology are the foundation, innovation is the driving force, digital transformation is the connection, and people are the center and the subjects.

These ideas are clearly reflected in Resolution 57. To implement Resolution 57, three crucial things must be done quickly and effectively: a transparent institutional framework, a smooth infrastructure, and intelligent people; along with other conditions and ensuring network security and safety.

Resolution No. 57 is of particular importance, serving as a guiding principle for development in the new era of prosperity, civilization, and well-being. It is a powerful call to action for the entire Party, the entire people, and the entire army to strive to make Vietnam a developed, high-income nation with global competitiveness.

The Prime Minister emphasized that science and technology, innovation, and digital transformation play a key role and are powerful driving forces for Vietnam's accelerated, breakthrough, and sustainable development, helping Vietnam catch up with and progress alongside developed countries, avoiding the risk of economic backwardness, and gradually surpassing and standing shoulder-to-shoulder with technological powerhouses.

This is key to improving labor productivity, the competitiveness of the economy, creating new products and services to meet domestic and international market demands; optimizing production, business, and state management processes; promoting the development of the digital economy, digital society, and green economy, in line with global trends.

"The aspiration for a prosperous, thriving, and modern Vietnam, and for Vietnam to soon join the group of high-income developed countries, is burning brighter than ever."

"This aspiration is well-founded, built upon the tremendous and historically significant achievements already attained. Developing science and technology, innovation, and digital transformation are not only inevitable trends of the times but also the only way to break through, overcome difficulties and challenges, seize opportunities, and build an independent, self-reliant, strong economy and society," the Prime Minister emphasized.

Remove all barriers hindering development.

The Prime Minister stated that immediately after Resolution No. 57 was issued, the Government promptly led and directed ministries, agencies, and localities to focus on building, reviewing, and finalizing the Government's Action Program for implementation with the spirit of "5 clear points": Clear person, clear task, clear responsibility, clear time, and clear results.

In its action plan, the Government has set out 41 groups of targets (including 35 specific target groups by 2030 and 6 specific target groups by 2045) and 7 groups of tasks with 140 specific tasks.

Delegates attending the Conference at the central venue (Photo: Pham Thang/Quochoi.vn)

Among these, the particularly important task group is to urgently and decisively improve the institutional framework; eliminate all ideas, concepts, and barriers hindering development; and turn institutions into a competitive advantage in the development of science and technology, innovation, and digital transformation (with 28 specific tasks).

The Prime Minister stated that this is a particularly important group of tasks aimed at fully, promptly, and effectively institutionalizing the Party and State's policies and guidelines, as directed by General Secretary To Lam, ensuring openness and fostering development with innovative thinking: "both strictly managing and fostering development, maximizing the mobilization of resources for development, and creating new development spaces," creating a legal framework to effectively mobilize and utilize all resources for development.

Alongside these are task groups such as strengthening infrastructure investment for the development of science and technology, innovation, and digital transformation; perfecting institutions, mechanisms, and policies; developing and utilizing high-quality human resources; applying scientific and technological development and innovation in the operations of state agencies; improving the efficiency of national governance, the effectiveness of state management, and ensuring national defense and security…

Some localities do not value science and technology and allocate insufficient funds to it.

Speaking about policies and solutions related to legal institutions to achieve breakthroughs in the development of science, technology, innovation, and national digital transformation, National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man said that since the beginning of the 15th National Assembly term, the National Assembly has passed eight laws related to this content.

In particular, the 29 laws and 41 resolutions passed by the National Assembly at its 7th and 8th sessions addressed many pressing practical issues, including laws regulating the creation of digital databases; management methods, mechanisms, and specific preferential policies; and allowing the implementation of controlled pilot mechanisms...

National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man speaks about policies and solutions related to legal institutions to achieve breakthroughs in the development of science, technology, innovation, and national digital transformation (Photo: Pham Thang/Quochoi.vn).

However, the national legal system regarding science, technology, and digital transformation still has fundamental limitations such as a lack of synchronization and uniformity, leading to some incentive and promotion mechanisms in these fields not being effective.

The investment and financial mechanisms for implementing digital transformation activities remain challenging and have not been addressed in a timely manner. The allocation of financial resources for tasks, programs, and projects of national scale is slow and implementation is complex and time-consuming.

In particular, according to the Speaker of the National Assembly, the investment and financial mechanisms for science, technology, and innovation are not truly suitable and do not encourage or attract investment from society.

Spending considerable time analyzing this issue, the Speaker of the National Assembly pointed out the example of the low total investment by the entire society in science, technology, and innovation.

The mobilization, allocation, and utilization of resources remain limited and inefficient; investment spending from the state budget on this sector tends to decrease; in the period 2016-2023, it decreased from 1.29% (2016) to 0.8% (2023).

According to him, one of the reasons is that ministries, departments, and localities have not really paid attention to this area, and have not developed tasks that meet the correct principles and criteria for allocating funds. Some localities have not allocated funds at all, or have allocated very little to this sector.

For example, every year, the allocated budget for most central ministries, departments, and localities is not fully disbursed. One of the reasons is the cumbersome procedures and processes.

The process of developing scientific and technological research proposals must follow a pre-existing plan. By the time they are approved, the urgency may have diminished, or by the time funding is allocated, the unit costs may have changed significantly, leading to delays in implementation, unspent funds, and inefficiency.

Turning institutions into a competitive advantage.

Outlining key tasks and solutions, the Speaker of the National Assembly stated that a strong reform of thinking, methods, and procedures is needed in the process of lawmaking.

Laws should be concise and clear, regulating only matters within the jurisdiction of the National Assembly; they should not codify the contents of circulars and decrees.

Strengthening decentralization and delegation of power, reforming administration, and shifting strongly from laws focused on management to a harmonious combination of effective management with development creation, encouraging innovation, and resolutely abandoning the mindset of "if you can't manage it, ban it."

Overview of the conference (Photo: VGP).

For specific issues that are still in the process of being developed and are not yet stable, the law only provides a framework and leaves it to the Government to regulate the details, ensuring flexibility in direction and management, and promptly responding to the demands of practice.

Results-based management requires eliminating the system of favoritism and subsidies, innovating budget allocation based on output results, and shifting from pre-auditing to post-auditing.

The scientific management mechanism must create incentives for innovation and creativity, similar to the "contract farming" spirit in agriculture.

In addition, continue to allow pilot programs for new practical issues that arise; research and establish appropriate regulations on pilot mechanisms and controlled testing mechanisms; and research regulations on liability exemptions in cases of testing new technologies and new business models.

The organization is working to improve the legal framework for the development of science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation.

Furthermore, he emphasized the need for a unified understanding of the task of "turning institutions into a competitive advantage," which includes meeting specific principles, criteria, objectives, and indicators; clearly demonstrating superior incentives and preferential treatment; ensuring consistency, uniformity, stability, openness, transparency, simplicity, convenience, and reduced compliance costs.

Source: https://www.baogiaothong.vn/xoa-bo-moi-rao-can-phat-trien-khoa-hoc-cong-nghe-doi-moi-sang-tao-192250113121119273.htm