Today (October 1) and tomorrow, the National Innovation Center (NIC) celebrates its 5th anniversary along with the event Vietnam Innovation Day 2024 (Innovate Viet Nam 2024).
Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung shared with the press about NIC's 5-year journey of "overcoming difficulties" and strategies to promote the development of innovation activities (IEC), bringing the country into a new era.
Dear Minister, please share about the process of establishing NIC?
- The establishment of NIC is an occasion for the Ministry of Planning and Investment to be assigned the task of researching and advising the Party and State on the country's 10-year socio-economic development strategy for 2021-2030.
The Ministry of Planning and Investment has researched and concluded that the new growth driver for Vietnam is science, technology and innovation. Based on that, the Ministry has advised the Party to include science, technology and innovation in the Resolution of the 13th National Congress as a strategic breakthrough, along with three breakthroughs in institutions, infrastructure and human resources.
The Ministry of Planning and Investment has studied the experiences of other countries based on the Resolution of the Party Central Committee, and coordinated with the world's leading consulting firm to research and develop a project to establish the National Innovation Center. Accordingly, the Prime Minister decided to establish the National Innovation Center (NIC) on October 2, 2019.
After 5 years of establishment, according to the Minister's assessment, what marks has NIC left in connecting components of the innovation ecosystem?
- The Ministry of Planning and Investment established NIC as a blank sheet of paper without any mechanism, resources, personnel and experience. During its 5 years of operation, NIC has overcome numerous difficulties, with the support of the Government, the Prime Minister and ministries and branches. Up to now, there have been initial institutions for innovation in general, which the Ministry of Science and Technology is continuing to implement.
Hundreds of large and small enterprises have benefited from NIC, especially in supporting digital transformation of enterprises. In a short time, NIC has done a lot, but in the beginning, the big challenge is how to become a modern, international standard center, a bridge between the State and enterprises, institutes and schools in research, how to turn the center into a regional level, Vietnam becomes a destination for regional and world innovation... That is the vision and ambition that the Ministry is striving to achieve every day, every hour.
To promote the development of innovation activities in general and of NIC in particular, what strategies and plans do we have in the coming time, Minister?
- First of all, it is necessary to form a complete, synchronous, and unified policy mechanism that operates best according to international standards.
Second, the facilities must be complete, including research centers, labs, and housing for experts. Currently, the Hoa Lac High-Tech Park is lacking. Without facilities, how can we retain experts? If experts do not come and stay, we cannot attract domestic and foreign resources.
Third, quickly form 9 technology industries there, including smart manufacturing, smart cities, digital media, cyber security, environment, healthcare, semiconductors, hydrogen... Currently, the most promoted is opening research and training centers on semiconductors.
In the near future, NIC will be assigned an important task of managing the training program to develop human resources for the semiconductor industry. The goal is to train at least 50,000 semiconductor engineers by 2050, supplying the Vietnamese market and possibly foreign markets.
We have a very strong human resource, but we must fully exploit and train the unskilled to meet the demand. The demand is very large, the human resource is very available, we will train it. I believe we will quickly rise up and dominate the global value chain in the semiconductor industry.
- Thank you very much!
