'Driving force' for development of Vietnam's mechanical industry

Dr. Phan Dang Phong said that the State should have policies to support and protect the market for the mechanical industry by integrating development programs.

In the cause of industrialization and modernization, our Party always identifies science and technology as one of the driving forces and strategic breakthroughs contributing to the rapid and sustainable socio-economic development of the country in the context of digital transformation today.

To realize this policy, on May 11, 2022, the Prime Minister issued the Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation Development to 2030 in Decision No. 569/QD-TTg. On this basis, in October 2023, the Minister of Industry and Trade also issued Decision No. 2795/QD-BCT approving the Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation to serve the development of the Industry and Trade sector to 2030. It stated many specific goals and solutions to improve the effectiveness of science and technology in the new context.

To learn about the results achieved, as well as to propose effective solutions to promote science and technology work of the Industry and Trade sector in the coming period, reporters of the Industry and Trade Newspaper had an interview with Dr. Phan Dang Phong, Director of the Institute of Mechanical Research (Ministry of Industry and Trade).

- Sir, as an important research institute of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, can you tell us what scientific and technological research topics the Ministry has assigned your unit to implement in 2024? And what are the results?

Dr. Phan Dang Phong: As the leading state research institute on mechanics and automation, in recent years the Institute has focused mainly on research topics, receiving and mastering technology and equipment lines in industrial fields. For example, in the fields of thermal power, new energy, raw material production, mineral exploitation and processing, etc., thereby creating traditional products that bring long-term competitive advantages to the Institute. In addition, in 2024, under the direction of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Institute will focus mainly on building mechanisms and policies related to the development of the mechanical industry.

Dr. Phan Dang Phong, Director of the Institute of Mechanical Research. Photo: Quoc Chuyen

Firstly , the task of researching, proposing tasks and solutions for developing the equipment manufacturing industry serving industry, renewable energy in coastal and island areas until 2030 and vision to 2045. The most recent is the project to develop electromechanical equipment, increasing the domestication rate according to the Power Plan VIII. This is a very important task assigned by the Ministry of Industry and Trade to the Institute to preside over. The success of the project will not only contribute to improving the capacity of domestic mechanical units, reducing investment costs, reducing trade deficit but also help ensure energy security when it is possible to self-manufacture equipment for the energy industry.

According to the Power Plan VIII, it is possible to invest in about 32,000M of gas power and about 23,000M of wind power. According to the Institute's synthesis, 1M of gas power is equal to about 0.97 million USD of equipment products and wind power is about 1.4 million USD, so there will be a market for developing equipment of about 64 billion USD within 10 years.

Thus, if only about 40% of the value can be localized, the mechanical market will have about 2.6 billion USD/year. This is a very large market capacity, if successful, new supporting industrial products will develop accordingly, while increasing the rate of supporting industrial equipment.

Second , the Institute is also coordinating with the Vietnam Mechanical Enterprise Association, in which the Association is assigned to carry out projects related to the localization of urban railways and high-speed railways, as well as building related policy mechanisms. The Institute is a member of the Association and is also coordinating to build a policy mechanism to develop equipment for the railway transport industry in the coming time. When these projects are completed and the policy mechanism is born, it will create leverage as well as a development incentive mechanism for mechanical enterprises.

- After 10 years of implementing the Science and Technology Development Strategy for the 2011-2020 period, many reports have shown that there are still bottlenecks in mechanisms and policies. So what are the difficulties and bottlenecks in the mechanical engineering sector?

Dr. Phan Dang Phong: After 10 years of implementing the science and technology strategy, although we have achieved many successes, especially in the field of complete equipment. For example, we have succeeded in designing and manufacturing self-elevating drilling rigs, or in manual mechanical equipment supplied to the electricity industry...

However, there are still some difficulties and bottlenecks, if resolved, there will be more outstanding developments in the coming time. For example, investment in mechanics, especially equipment in mechanical manufacturing is very large and expensive. However, the market in the mechanical manufacturing industry in Vietnam is still small and often fragmented, there is no comprehensive national strategy to integrate the development programs of economic sectors with the development program in the field of mechanical manufacturing.

In addition, the process of registering for and selecting topics at the ministerial or state level is still too long, often not suitable for the actual progress of the application facility, usually taking at least one year, some topics have to be registered for 2-3 years before disbursement begins. Thus, when funding for scientific research begins to be disbursed, the products are not timely.

At the same time, there is no clear price for hiring foreign experts in technology transfer and technical services.

- For the mechanical engineering industry - an important field of industry, in your opinion, how should we focus on investing in science, technology and innovation to improve production efficiency?

Dr. Phan Dang Phong: Firstly , for the mechanical engineering sector, when building development plans for economic sectors, mechanical engineering development programs and preferential policies and mechanisms related to mechanical engineering development should be integrated into the planning program. At the same time, relevant parties should develop a series of topics related to this field; when completing the series of topics, we will simultaneously complete the technology transfer of the entire equipment system of that field. Thus, only when mastering a certain field can we change products, reduce costs, and be autonomous in technological matters.

Second , financial resources are very limited, so it is necessary to focus on selective topics, avoid spreading out, leading to insufficient funding for any topic, especially focusing on science and technology related to purchasing and receiving technology transfer, complete equipment. Because only when mastering technology can we be autonomous in the process of improving products, reducing costs, increasing the localization rate of auxiliary products, etc.

- To overcome difficulties, improve the efficiency of science and technology activities in the mechanical industry, and adapt to the new context, what suggestions and recommendations do you have for the authorities and the business community?

Dr. Phan Dang Phong: Firstly , the State should have policies to support and protect the market for the mechanical engineering industry by integrating development programs and national economic sectors with the mechanical engineering development program.

Second , it is necessary to invest and support enterprises in the cost of receiving and transferring technology for a number of synchronous production lines and equipment with large market capacity, especially in the fields of urban railways, offshore wind power, electricity, etc. If there are reasonable policies, it will create a very large market capacity for domestic mechanical enterprises.

Third , when ordering scientific and technological products, there should be improvements in registering the topic, then when starting to implement it, it should be concise. This will help the State's support budget, although very little, but it will really help businesses, support businesses in technology transfer as well as in initial access.

Thank you!

According to experts, from now until 2030, the demand for mechanical engineering will be about 310 billion USD, the demand for automobiles alone will be 120 billion USD, but Vietnam can only meet 1/3 of that. The opportunity for us to access the world market is also very large. If we create stable prices and markets, Vietnam's mechanical engineering industry will have the opportunity to develop strongly.

Source: https://congthuong.vn/chinh-sach-dong-luc-phat-trien-cho-nganh-co-khi-viet-nam-369040.html