The above information was shared by the leader of Ho Chi Minh City National University (VNU-HCM) at the national scientific conference "Biotechnology Development Strategy for the period 2026-2030, vision to 2045", held on November 29.
Statistics from Ho Chi Minh City National University show that the unit currently has 175 PhDs, 65 professors and associate professors in the field of biotechnology.
As a result of the 2020-2025 period, Ho Chi Minh City National University has trained over 4,700 undergraduate students, over 1,200 master's and 125 doctoral students. The quantity and quality of publications in this field have been recorded to increase sharply since 2023, in which international publications on biotechnology and related fields account for 30% of the publications of Ho Chi Minh City National University.
Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Thanh Mai - Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City National University, said that the global biotechnology market in 2025 is estimated to reach about 1.8 trillion USD and is expected to double by 2030. This growth comes from the breakthrough of scientific research, the application of artificial intelligence (AI), gene editing technology and increasing demand in the fields of healthcare, agriculture, environment and industry.
According to some statistics, the scale of the Vietnamese biotechnology market is currently only about 1.5 billion USD - less than 0.1% globally. Comparing in the region, the scale of China's biotechnology market is 100 times larger than Vietnam, Japan is 55 times larger, South Korea is 28 times larger and India is 25 times larger.
Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Thanh Mai said that these numbers pose many concerns. Ho Chi Minh City National University has strong resources with more than 250 experts in AI and biotechnology, but the process of transferring and commercializing products is still limited.
According to Professor Nguyen Thi Thanh Mai, Ho Chi Minh City National University has been very proactive in the process of becoming a model higher education institution in "3 houses" cooperation.
"We expect stakeholders to cooperate together and focus resources to keep up with countries in the region. If not now, we will definitely miss the rapid growth of the biotechnology field," emphasized Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Thanh Mai.
