Proposal to prioritize investment budgets for universities
That was the opinion of Prof. Dr. Hoang Van Cuong - Hanoi National Assembly Delegation when discussing in the hall the Draft Resolution on piloting a number of policies to remove obstacles in scientific, technological and innovation activities on the morning of February 17.
According to Mr. Cuong, in the world, most universities have become research centers. Major announcements and Nobel prizes come from schools... In Vietnam, 90% of international announcements come from universities, but the budget for scientific research allocated to universities is only 10%.
"This is not commensurate" - Mr. Cuong said.
From this reality, Mr. Cuong proposed prioritizing investment budgets for universities, especially research-oriented universities and universities with doctoral training. Because if funding is not provided for doctoral training activities, graduate students who pay for it themselves will study what is available. Those results do not contribute to the value of science.
"If we spend money, students receive funding, and carry out research tasks according to the school's requirements. At that time, the research of the new graduate student contributes back, gradually accumulates, creates general research results, creates scientific products" - Prof. Dr. Hoang Van Cuong analyzed.
He also pointed out the shortcomings related to funding for scientific research activities. Specifically, according to the Draft Resolution, the funding is being implemented under regular expenditures. This is not in accordance with the autonomous nature of research units. In particular, not meeting the research requirements must take place over a long period of many years.
"If the funding is not provided annually and the following year, the research activities will be interrupted. Therefore, I propose not to provide regular expenditure costs, but to switch to placing orders for research units for a long time, depending on the task, orders can be placed for 2 years, 3 years, or even 7 years" - Professor Cuong proposed.
"We should not worry about scientists and teachers being rich"
The draft also stipulates new points related to the exemption and deduction of personal income tax for scientific research activities. This is an issue discussed in the hall.
Mr. Cuong analyzed that for the part of the budget sponsored by the enterprise, the Draft stipulates that only the enterprise is allowed to deduct from the tax calculation cost. The research unit still has to calculate personal income tax. This is unreasonable.
"Research units that exploit money from outside still have to pay personal income tax. Public universities, which do not set profit targets, or private schools operating not for profit have no basis to calculate taxes, but currently, they still have to pay taxes. This increases responsibility and burden on learners. Therefore, I propose exempting personal income tax for all research activities" - Mr. Cuong proposed.
Previously, at the group discussion session on the Draft Resolution, there were concerns that it is necessary to consider exempting or reducing personal income tax for a period of time to avoid many scientific researchers with very high incomes.
Regarding this issue, Professor Le Quan - National Assembly Delegation of Hanoi City said that we should not worry about rich teachers and scientists.
"We have more and more teachers and scientists, the richer we are, the happier we are because this is a legitimate way to get rich, and being exempted from taxes means contributing, researching well, and making good products. Only if you do well will you receive funding. No good deeds will not be funded.
This resolution follows the mechanism of contracting by product, that is, an output approach, how to make output products effective. Except for a small matter. The important thing is the effectiveness of the research. Attached to that, there will be effective socio-economic development" - Professor Quan affirmed.
