The Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) and Ho Chi Minh City authorities on March 2 signed an agreement to jointly implement a pilot of a number of mechanisms policies on sci-tech and innovation for the 2024-2028 period.

Brand new incentives planned for science-technology efforts, illustration photo/ Source: freepik.com

Prioritised fields are AI, the Internet of Things, big data, blockchain, technology for designing and manufacturing components, integrated electronic circuits, robotics, automation tech, and others.

Several special policies are planned, including corporate income tax exemption for a period of five years for innovative startups, sci-tech organisations, innovation centres, and intermediary organisations supporting innovative startups in the city; exemption from personal income tax and organisations with income sourced from transferring capital contributions; and the right to contribute capital to innovative startups in the city.

Moreover, the two parties will work on developing and piloting controlled testing policies for new products, services, and business models based on sci-tech achievements and innovation.

Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Le Xuan Dinh said, “Ho Chi Minh City is the country’s top economic and innovation centre. More than ever, we have enough favourable legal grounds for the MoST and Ho Chi Minh City to boldly pilot specific policies in sci-tech and innovation.”

The collaboration with Ho Chi Minh City is one among the tasks that the MoST will focus on this year, together with other legal improvements.

According to Pham Hong Quat, director general of the National Agency for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialisation Development, many regulations cannot be resolved immediately because it takes a long time to amend laws. Therefore, it is necessary to experimentally apply policies in some research institutes and universities.

“Currently, the policies to support activities of innovative startup supporting centres and relevant startups are facing difficulties because there is no direct support for them or private investors,” Quat said. “Therefore, the MoST is developing a draft decree on innovation and innovative startups to regulate state management issues and supporting policies for innovative startup centres and other subjects. However, for the policy to come into practice, there needs to be an environment for testing.”

Based on piloting a number of direct supporting policies in Ho Chi Minh City, the ministry will summarise and include them in the decree.

Quat added, “Sci-tech business incubation at research institutes and universities are very few, and still facing many difficulties in both funding and environment, and testing space for incubated products and technologies.”

To deal with this, the ministry is researching a national scheme on incubation and development of sci-tech enterprises to encourage and promote tech research and development, as well as create new products. In addition, the MoST is making proposals to amend the Law on Science and Technology, as well as amendments to the Law on Product and Goods Quality, and Law on Atomic Energy. It also plans to develop and submit to the government five decrees to remove problems while waiting for the sci-tech law to be amended.

According to Quat, this is good news for Vietnam’s innovation startup ecosystem. Thus far, the efficiency of developing new products and business models, as well as calling for domestic and foreign investment has been improved in number, scale, and quality.

“High growth potential is forecast in food tech, health-tech, logistics, green growth, and carbon credit,” Quat said. “We are encouraging domestic and international powerful groups to pilot new products of innovation startups and businesses, thus creating a foundation for attracting more venture capital funds for the development of the local innovation startup ecosystem.”

Huynh Thanh Dat, minister of Science and Technology In the context of complex and unpredictable global developments, along with the influence of the Industry 4.0, the sci-tech industry is making efforts to respond to the task of leveraging, contributing to promoting transformation of the traditional economy with the participation of the knowledge economy and innovation. Sci-tech is inherently a difficult field to manage, but that does not mean there are no solutions. Instead of avoiding it, let’s see it as an opportunity and a motivation to change for the better. Therefore, the MoST sees the move not only as an opportunity for Ho Chi Minh City, but also for the sci-tech industry to policies. In that spirit, the Party Committee and the leaders of the MoST will actively advise the government to create a better environment and conditions for scientific research, tech development, and innovation, encouraging sci-tech staff to keep pursuing big dreams. Nam Thieu, country director in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, Qualcomm Vietnam is the third country in Asia and the only one in Southeast Asia that Qualcomm selected to implement innovation programmes, which means Vietnam is ready for the world stage with a dynamic innovation ecosystem. As a commitment to the government to support Vietnam to become an innovation-driven economy, the Qualcomm Vietnam Innovation Challenge is the foundation to foster the growth of domestic technology innovation in Vietnam, to further grow the ecosystem, locally then globally. Besides this, we’d like to help Viet startups and smaller enterprises to leverage Qualcomm technologies and platforms with our technical support. The Vietnam startup ecosystem is facing a great opportunity where many government policies and initiatives on innovation have just been released in the country, especially in Ho Chi Minh City from last August, and the United States-Vietnam has upgraded to a comprehensive strategic partnership, in which AI and semiconductors are strongly focused on.