In startup and startup support activities, the term "sandbox" is understood as a framework of mechanisms and pilot policies, allowing startups to test new technologies and new business models in a practical environment. A successful sandbox mechanism will be a breakthrough resource for development.

VietNamNet newspaper interviewed Dr. Le Anh Son, Deputy Director of Phenikaa Research & Technology Institute, Director of Phenikaa-X Joint Stock Company, about this issue.

“It is difficult for a startup to go through all the ministries, departments and branches by itself.”

- Resolution 57-NQ/TW on breakthroughs in science, technology, innovation and national digital transformation has just been approved by the Politburo. What is your assessment of this resolution?

Dr. Le Anh Son: The creative startup community highly appreciates this resolution. We believe that the resolution's ideas have a huge breakthrough.

However, to be honest, we are also "holding our breath" waiting for specific instructions and action plans so that the resolution can be put into practice.

- Specifically, what content are you looking forward to?

The first issue we are concerned about is the sandbox. We hope that this testing mechanism will not have to go through many gates but only one gate. A problem that wants to be a breakthrough today is related to many ministries, departments, and agencies. If it goes through many ministries, departments, and agencies, it is difficult for a startup to go through all the gates by itself.

So what we expect most is a sandbox. Sandbox can propose to the Government to allow testing, without having to go through too many doors. In all fields of innovation and creativity, going through too many doors and taking too much time is afraid that startups will not be able to wait. Time will lose opportunities to create breakthroughs when other countries have their own and specific mechanisms to allow testing of new technologies. In addition, with a more open institution, eliminating the mindset of "if you can't manage it, ban it" and accepting risks in researching and implementing new business models, hopefully it will create great convenience for startups.

Second, the technology community is waiting for support to build a comprehensive technology ecosystem with the participation of large, medium and small enterprises, in addition to hoping for a flexible financial mechanism and strong investment in new products of the future regardless of public or private. All countries have venture capital funds, invested by the State. The State invests in startups that they feel have potential, in the right direction to grasp core technology. However, there needs to be fairness between public and private investment.

This fund also needs a team of advisors who are experts from many fields to determine which startups are potential startups, which ideas are breakthroughs, which technologies are feasible and should be targeted, and how the advisory board will help after investment. In addition, there needs to be a more open mechanism, investment should not be controlled so that startups can develop freely, because if control is imposed, it will lose the creativity as well as the motivation of startups to do new things.

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Dr. Le Anh Son, Deputy Director of Phenikaa Research & Technology Institute, Director of Phenikaa X Joint Stock Company. Photo: Phenikaa X

- The resolution mentions the role of large enterprises in leading innovation. In your opinion, what role will these enterprises play in supporting this?

Big business or big orientation is very important. In that, we must clearly identify the advantages we have, carefully analyze the world market to see the shifting trends to decide which potential and breakthrough fields to focus on investing.

We cannot do all the core technology or follow other countries to do things that are not potential and do not have competitive advantage. Therefore, the orientation or guidance of large enterprises is extremely important.

In particular, large enterprises must be required to invest in research and development, cooperate and support startups by providing facilities or strategic orientation and standardization, building digital infrastructure and shared platforms. Avoid acquisitions that destroy the creativity that startups have.

For example, if we focus on artificial intelligence, we need large AI factories. So what should the government or large enterprises support? It could be creating a server system that all startups can use, which is also a way to support startups. This requires a lot of procedural breakthroughs, so that startups can easily participate in the fastest way.

Second, when the State has focused on a field, invested in a large company, this unit needs to share the work with small companies to mobilize the resources of the whole country. In fact, in the technology field, many Vietnamese companies are capable of doing it, only we can accept them to do it or not, accept the difficult initial stage or not.

For startups to survive, they also need market factors. In addition to supporting product development, they must continue to support market exploration. In particular, the State can be the first customer for startups and accompany startups from the beginning to build the market. This requires support from the Government.

- In addition, do you have any other recommendations?

The government needs to study the problems related to investment mechanisms, tax policies, and the business environment so that businesses always choose Vietnamese companies to invest in, avoiding the situation where startups, when calling for investment from foreign funds, have to move to other countries like Singapore to open a company.

I hope the Government will study and resolve this issue, so that more international investors can come in.

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Phenikaa X's self-driving car. Photo: Phenikaa X

Breakthrough for testing: "Hope to have a bus route with self-driving cars"

- As a very strong innovation unit, does Phenikaa-X encounter any difficulties in its projects?

Phenikaa-X is testing many technology projects. With the smart factory, this project is no longer a trial but has been delivered to FDI customers. For example, Samsung is using Phenikaa-X robots in its factories. Phenikaa-X is also testing “5G Private network” with major partners in some regions, to make smart factories and smart cities.

In addition, Phenikaa-X is researching drones and has made some AI drone models, especially in managing large forest areas (using artificial intelligence). With drones, a testing mechanism is needed. Currently, ministries, departments and branches are very supportive. Phenikaa-X's products are tested in Ha Tinh, the Ministry of National Defense has licensed the testing. However, we need much more support.

As for autonomous vehicles, Phenikaa-X is currently being tested in some isolated areas. We really hope that autonomous vehicles will be allowed to go out on real roads for testing and to collect data, because data is one of the important bottlenecks in applying artificial intelligence.

- So why do authorities not allow self-driving cars to be tested outside?

Innovation means creating new, unprecedented products to solve problems, some research on innovation often has to be 5, 10 years ahead to be ready for the transition. Regarding autonomous vehicles in general and self-driving cars in particular, there are currently no specific regulations or inspection methods for vehicles without a driver.

If it cannot be inspected, it cannot be allowed to go out on the road to participate in traffic. Meanwhile, major countries in the world have focused on researching autonomous vehicles and have their own mechanisms for this research. Autonomous vehicles apply a lot of artificial intelligence from analyzing the surrounding environment, determining the route to move, recognizing objects on the road, automatically building travel trajectories, etc.

In developed countries, almost all large companies are researching self-driving cars. Countries such as the US, Germany, Japan, and Korea have invested billions of dollars in self-driving car research (for example, in the US, the National Automated Highway Fund has invested about 650 million USD to promote the development of automation technology in traffic).

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AMR robots in an electronics factory. Photo: Phenikaa X

In addition, large companies such as Tesla, Waymo, Toyota are also supported by public and private funding for research. They also build flexible and fast legal frameworks. For example, the states of California, Nevada and Michigan have granted testing permits since 2015, the UK is pushing for an Automated Vehicles Bill to support deployment by 2026, China allows testing of autonomous vehicles as well as developing smart transportation infrastructure - open and connected.

- So how is Phenikaa's self-driving car licensed now?

PhenikaaX has been granted a license to conduct a trial in a certain isolated area with a commitment to ensure safety and not violate the law. We hope to receive support from the Government, ministries, departments, branches, and localities to be able to widely apply this vehicle for testing, similar to Japan, which is testing self-driving cars in more than 100 areas, of which 50 areas are funded by the government through the SIP (Strategic Innovation Promotion Program).

Working together and supporting businesses also helps government agencies have a more detailed and specific view, grasp technical requirements, thereby forming legal documents and regulations, which is also a way to accompany startups like us.

- Grab has received a pilot mechanism in Vietnam and has had certain successes so far. In your opinion, why can't self-driving cars do the same?

Robots, autonomous vehicles, and drones affect people as much as safety. From the beginning, we cannot determine 100% safety, just like humans, accidents can happen. How will we handle it then, will the sandbox accept it, who will come forward to support, will the company's legal representative handle it or who?

If we deal with the legal representative of the company, will anyone dare to research this field? If we do it on a small scale, it is not technology, and on a large scale, it is impossible to avoid possible accidents.

We have advantages in human resources, access to and use of artificial intelligence, software teams, and the current traffic situation is among the most difficult in the world, so if we accept to invest and succeed in Vietnam, we will certainly be able to bring the product to other countries. If we have the support of the Government and localities in investing in testing, for example, fixed bus routes for tourists running completely autonomously, I believe this will be one of the things that can create a breakthrough in the future.

Grab’s success is getting a license to test. For a startup, this is a huge success, like us, getting a license to run on the road is a really big step forward.

Thank you for the chat!