Why is science in Vietnam underdeveloped?

“Using every objective measurement, it seems that Vietnam’s science and technology is a failure…,” according to a report by the famous Harvard University. Dr. Pham Duc Chinh at the Mechanics Institute analyses the weakness of science in Vietnam.

In the world, the capability of scientists and nations is evaluated firstly by the number of articles published in international scientific magazines and the number of patents granted by prestigious international agencies.

The US-based Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) made statistics from nearly 10,000 outstanding scientific magazines selected from over 100,000 magazines worldwide.

According to ISI, in 11 years, from January 1997 to December 2007, Vietnamese scientists in 17 fields (clinical health, physics, zoology and botany, technology, biology and biochemistry, chemistry, agriculture, microorganism sciences, the environment, material sciences, immunization studies, pharmacy, molecular biology and genetics, neurology, mathematics, and economics) published a total of 4,667 scientific articles in standard international magazines.

At the same time, Thailand had 20,672 articles, Malaysia 13,059, South Korea 203,637, and China 508,561. Vietnam’s internationally published scientific articles were equivalent to o­ne-third of Malaysia’s (Vietnam’s population is 3 times as large), 1/5 of Thailand’s, less than 1/11 of Singapore’s, 1/45 of South Korea’s, and 1/110 of China’s.

While half of the articles of Thailand were written by Thai scientists alone, up to 80% of Vietnam’s articles were “international cooperation products”. This means that Vietnamese scientists largely depended o­n international assistance (skills, equipment or finance).

Regarding the number of patents granted by prestigious international agencies, Vietnam had just a few patents so it was not named in the statistics.

In 1997, the number of patents granted to Americans in the US was 80,295, Japan 30,841, South Korea, 2,359, Singapore 120, China 3,100, Malaysia 23, Thailand 13, Philippine 8 and o­nly o­ne for Vietnam.

According to researcher Dang Mong Lan, in 2002 Vietnam registered o­nly two patents with the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).

Many say that the state should increase spending in scientific research. It is necessary, but though the state funding for science research has risen yearly to over $400 million at present, the number of articles published in international magazines has remained around 80 per year in the past ten years, the lowest level in the world.

Some others say Vietnam doesn’t invest properly in research equipment. It is true that research equipment in Vietnam is not complete and perfect like developed countries but a lot of expensive equipment and 18 costly national laboratories are not being used effectively.

While Thai and Malaysian scientists have accepted standards o­n publishing scientific research in international magazines, Vietnamese try to neglect the standards, saying that Vietnam doesn’t have sufficient conditions for it.

When will Vietnam catch up with its neighbours?