Reducing technology supply-demand gap

Investment in technologies to increase

Under the impacts of macroeconomic conditions, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) enterprises still showed superior capability to the domestic enterprises. They still maintained business efficiency, expanded scales in terms of labor and sources of capital and increased sale revenues and market shares. One of the secrets to success of FDI enterprises was their regular technological innovations and changes of product designs. Statistics of the MOST showed that since 2007, there have been 217 technology transfer contracts from FDI projects out of total 254 contracts certified by the MOST. In addition, only 30 percent of the domestic enterprises considered to have relatively advanced equipment.

This demanded the domestic enterprises to innovate and master technologies soon if they want to compete with FDI enterprises and foreign enterprises in general. Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Science and Technology Phan Minh Tan said production technology is the root of development. The production technologies if being not advanced will reduce competitiveness due to higher production costs, cause environmental pollution and damages to their brands, which will be harmful to the enterprises if they want to expand to larger markets worldwide.

A recent survey on more than 650 domestic enterprises conducted by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) showed that the costs of technological research, applications and transfers are on the increase. On average, each enterprise now spends about VND24 billion on technological research and transfers, 10 times higher than the figure in 2007.

General Director of Mechanization Electrification Construction Corporation - Joint Stock Company Le Van An said in the current market-oriented economy with fierce competition, if domestic enterprises want to exist and grow, they have to do well two jobs: choosing product lines which have large demand and mastering technologies to create the products with the best quality and most competitive prices possible.

Director of Thuan Hoa Co, Ltd Tran Thi Thuan Hoa also said the company always regards scientific and technological applications as momentum to improve production efficiency and promote development. It invested VND25 billion to build closed modern breeding facilities which ensure environmental requirements. Here, the animal droppings are used to make gas for cooking, keeping warm and generating electricity to serve production. She said “Investment in science and technology always makes profit, the company earns an average revenue of VND60 billion a year.”

Boosting the development of scientific and technological market

Many economic experts evaluated that Vietnam’s technology market is now at a low development level. Supplies of the Vietnam’s technologies remain poor and the number and quality of technological transactions are limited and the technology transfer network is undeveloped. In other words, enterprises that are in need of technological innovation but they do not know where to buy the technologies they need along with other related procedures.

Before this circumstance, the MOST has actively implemented practical activities to boost the scientific and technological market such as organizing technology and equipment trade fairs, technology exchanges and tech-marts, bringing high efficiency. For example, the Techmart Dak Nong 2013 attracted 225 domestic and international companies introducing 1,500 technologies and products and signing 1,337 sales contracts worth of more than VND156 billion.

From the success of the connecting technology supply-demand activities in 2013 in the Red Delta and Mekong Delta regions, the MOST has conducted surveys and found out that the demand for technologies are quite large with over 1,000 enterprises and organizations. The surveys also determined 300 supplies of domestic and foreign technologies ready for transfers. However, to heat up the technology market, the state should create incentive mechanisms and policies, especially in terms of financial assistance as most Vietnamese enterprises are small and medium-sized ones, of those many lack capital to undertake comprehensive investment in production lines and resulted in slow technological innovation.

Source: VEN