Policy priorities on developing human resources for science and technology

Overview of the Meeting

Conducting the 44th Session, on the morning of April 15, 2025, under the direction of Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Le Minh Hoan, the National Assembly Standing Committee gave opinions on the draft Law on Science, Technology and Innovation.

Give maximum autonomy to research organizations

Presenting the purpose of promulgating the Law on Science, Technology and Innovation, Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Manh Hung said that the Law aims to create a legal corridor for science, technology and innovation to contribute to improving national competitiveness, contributing to socio-economic development, ensuring national defense and security, improving people's quality of life and human development.

Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Manh Hung presents the draft law

The bill aims to give maximum autonomy to research institutions, including autonomy in building their apparatus and spending according to the spending mechanism. The State will focus on managing research goals, outputs, results and effectiveness, instead of intervening in the implementation method. In particular, the bill proposes to exempt research institutions from civil liability if the project does not achieve expected results, in order to encourage commitment and innovation.

According to the Minister, accepting risks does not mean loosening management, but rather creating conditions for scientists to pursue challenging and breakthrough problems. Effective organizations will be given priority for additional funding, while ineffective units will have their resources cut.

The bill also proposes an autonomous mechanism for ownership and commercialization of research results, allowing research institutions full decision-making authority. Scientists are entitled to a minimum of 30% of profits from commercialization and are allowed to participate in establishing and operating enterprises.

"This has been a major bottleneck for a long time," said the Minister, who believes that granting ownership of research results to the host organization will remove the bottleneck of commercialization, bringing dual benefits of tax revenue for the State and jobs for the people.

To attract high-quality human resources, the bill adds preferential policies on personal income tax, rewards for basic research, profit sharing from commercialization of research results, and creates favorable conditions on salary, work permits, and visas for foreign experts and overseas Vietnamese participating in implementing key scientific tasks in Vietnam.

Creating development space for science and technology

On behalf of the examining agency, Chairman of the Committee for Science, Technology and Environment (KH,CN&MT) Le Quang Huy affirmed that the Standing Committee of the Committee agreed with the necessity of promulgating the Law on Science, Technology and Innovation for the reasons stated in the Government's Submission No. 163/TTr-CP.

Chairman of the Committee for Science, Technology and Environment Le Quang Huy speaks at the meeting

Regarding the viewpoint on drafting the Law, the Standing Committee of the Science, Technology and Environment Committee requested the drafting agency to continue to: (i) Closely follow and fully institutionalize the spirit of Resolution No. 57-NQ/TW; innovate the thinking of law-making; (ii) Institutionalize the Party's policy on the role of enterprises and the private economy in the socialist-oriented market economy, in which the private economy is the leading driving force for growth and innovation; (iii) It is necessary to clearly demonstrate the "doctrine" of science, technology and innovation development in the draft Law because this is considered the original law in this field; (iv) Ensure consistency, unity, and enhance the feasibility of the Law to accelerate its implementation immediately after the Law comes into effect.

Concluding the session, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Le Minh Hoan emphasized: The approach to the Law on Science, Technology and Innovation has been clearly innovated in that there is no distinction between public and private sectors and organizations. In particular, priority is given to creating conditions and motivation for the development of the private economic sector.

Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Le Minh Hoan delivered a concluding speech at the meeting.

In addition, the Law on Science, Technology and Innovation is not only for management but also to create a space for science and technology development for society, not just for scientific research organizations. All scientific and technological research products must go to the market, be applied and serve in life to avoid wasting resources.

To achieve the above goal, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Le Minh Hoan requested the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Committee for Science, Technology and Environment to fully absorb and study the opinions of members of the National Assembly Standing Committee, paying attention to contributing to removing difficulties for scientists so that they do not have to be entangled in the steps of invoice and document procedures. This also contributes to speeding up the acceptance of scientific research projects and applications in the market.

On the basis of continuing to study the comments contributed at the National Assembly Standing Committee meeting, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Le Minh Hoan requested the presiding agencies to quickly complete the draft Law on Science, Technology and Innovation in a more complete manner to submit to the National Assembly for consideration and discussion at the upcoming 9th Session./.

Center for Science and Technology Communication (synthesis)

Source: https://mst.gov.vn/uu-tien-chinh-sach-ve-phat-trien-nguon-nhan-luc-khcn-197250415165918673.htm