Hanoi urged to build shared model to attract innovation activities

Experts have suggested Hanoi develop a sharing model that helps boost the city’s science and technology activities.

Participants discuss incentives and other supportive policies to boost innovation activities in Hanoi. Photo: The Hanoi Times

The city should connect the ministries, research institutions, universities and colleges, as well as companies to support innovation activities, Do Tien Thinh, Vice Director of the National Innovation Center under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, said at a workshop on September 21.

The combination of facilities will reduce costs for the city and form a shared model, allowing the city to explore additional benefits, he said, adding that Hanoi must have some link to research projects that are being conducted by the aforementioned agencies.

Hanoi should develop a specific policy regarding innovation activities to identify hindrances, Thinh emphasized, noting that the local authorities should study both domestic and international practices to address key innovation activities and add them to the city’s 2022 socio-economic development plan. 

"The city could establish innovation hubs with preferential incentives, management and planning," he suggested.

Nguyen Van Yen, a representative of the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Corporation (VNPT), said the city authorities should increase its budget for innovation activities and science and technology research.

Local authorities should also amend existing regulations that enable further private investment in sciences and technologies, which will lure more investment capital for the city, he said.

Besides, the city should consider spending a part of the budget to support technological firms to do research on modern technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and BigData, Yen said.

Such financial support will encourage private companies to invest in scientific research and development of new technologies, as they share the risks and expense of developing high-quality human resources, he added.

The city should encourage its subordinate agencies to use the technologies provided by domestic firms such as security check, attendance check, face recognition, and virtual assistant, so as to collect feedback on the quality of the technologies, Yen said.

In addition, Hanoi should develop a policy that allows sharing the costs of technology developers when testing their technologies to reduce their production costs, said the VNPT executive.

Vu Tuan Anh, Deputy Head of Science and Technology Department at the Vietnam National University – Hanoi, said the city authorities should work on a regulation that draws the intellects of all businesses and organizations across the country and allows the connection in scientific research with other provinces.

Tu Minh Hieu, a specialist at the Ministry of Science and Technology, said Hanoi should facilitate good conditions and services for startups to set up and develop their operations, thus propelling science research and technological development in the city.

Nguyen Anh Tuan, Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Science and Technology, said that, by 2045, the city must complete its socio-economic restructuring based on revamped growth model, sciences, technologies and innovations, promote the power of human intellects, apply sciences and modern technologies in all activities, speed up the digital transformation, develop a digital economy, digital society and other economic models, encourage the development of technological companies, attract private investment from large-cap corporations, and establish technological hubs.

 Speaking at the workshop, Deputy Minister of Justice Phan Chi Hieu highly appreciated the opinions of experts and scientists that show their fondness for Hanoi.

The opinions will be compiled for the amendment of the Law on the Capital to assure there will be suitable policies to foster the city’s socio-economic development, Hieu said.

“The amendment of the Law on the Capital is not only about Hanoi but also about the whole nation as the more Hanoi is developed, the more prosperous the country will be. Sciences and technologies are the main drives to the growth of GDP and per-capita income,” Vice Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Le Hong Son said.

The workshop is co-organized by the Ministry of Justice and the Hanoi People’s Committee to collect ideas for local development of sciences and technologies, thus giving recommendations for the amended Law on the Capital.