On November 30, 2023, at the headquarters of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), State Agency for Technology Innovation (SATI) chaired and coordinated with relevant department to organize the Conference "Innovation and state management of innovation”.

The workshop aims to share and provide information  of state management on innovation; Identify some key issues in state management of innovation and propose directions for this work of the Ministry of Science and Technology in the current and next periods.

Attending the workshop were Minister of Science and Technology Mr. Huynh Thanh Dat, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Mr. Hoang Minh, and leaders and experts of other depertment in MOST.

Conference "Innovation and state management of innovation”.

At the Conference, Mr. Huynh Thanh Dat said that in recent years, innovation and state management of innovation have been demonstrated in many activities of enterprises, research institutes, universities and people, as well as in state management activities of ministries, department and localities. Innovation and development of the national innovation system is an important content in the Documents of the 13th Congress and in a number of documents of the Party and Government.

After the Government issued Decree No. 95/2017/ND-CP dated August 16, 2017 on the functions, tasks, powers, and organizational structure of MOST, which stipulates "The Ministry of Science and Technology is the agency of the Government, performing the function of state management of science and technology, including: scientific research activities, technology development, and innovation", MOST has had many positive activities to strengthen State management on innovation.

In particular, Decree No. 28/2023/ND-CP dated June 2, 2023 of the Government regulating the functions, tasks, powers and organizational structure of MOST has further specified its functions as a "Government agency, performing the state management function of science, technology and innovation".

Minister  Huynh Thanh Dat at the Conference  

Therefore, in the new period, to well perform the functions and tasks of state management of science, technology and innovation, and promptly resolve the above-mentioned inadequacies and shortcomings, the Conference  contributes to unifying scientific arguments and main contents of innovation activities as well as state management of innovation. In addition, MOST also needs to proactively and actively coordinate with ministries, departments, localities, enterprises, research institutes, and universities to clarify roles and responsibilities to participate in state management of innovation, and jointly promote the development of the national innovation system in a synchronous and comprehensive manner, acting the Government’s and, in particular, MOST’s role, position and strengthening the effectiveness of state management of innovation, step by step institutionalize state management activities on innovation.

​Discussions include: Innovation and state management of innovation; International experience in state management of innovation activities; State management of the innovation startup ecosystem; The role of standards and introduction of the ISO-56000 of innovation management; Some issues arise with state management of innovation in localities.

Mr. Nguyen Mai Duong, Director General of SATI shared about "Innovation and state management of innovation". Accordingly, innovation has two characteristics: novelty and application. Innovation is always associated with science and technology. Innovation is the next step in bringing science and technology products to the market. It is necessary to unify the concept, characteristics and classification of innovation as well as distinguish innovation from creativity, invention, start-up... Besides, there are a number of issues that need attention in state management of innovation such as: Vietnam's national innovation system is still weak and in improving; The current legal system is not ready for testing and applying new products as well as new business models based on innovation. The current investment in R&D is not a strategic solution but requires a series of supporting factors for innovation projects to succeed.

Mr. Nguyen Mai Duong emphasized that innovation is the bridge to bring science and technology to serve socio-economic development, thereby helping Vietnam successfully transform its growth model. Highlight the role and position of the state management agency on innovation, affirming the role and position of the state management agency on science and technology in the coming time. Therefore, along with improving the legal system and forming a legal corridor for innovation activities, it is necessary to identify key industries and areas to invest in innovation. State management of the national innovation system must be evaluated through the global innovation index (GII) and local innovation index (PII) and at the national and regional levels.

Mr. Nguyen Mai Duong, Director General of SATI

The discussion session chaired by Mr. Hoang Minh, representatives of department under  MOST discussed and clarified issues of innovation. They all believe that the innovation is not a new issue and regulated in the 2013 Law on Science and Technology, and has been successfully implemented in many activities and tasksby MOST in recent times such as: Project "Supporting the national innovation startup ecosystem" (Project 844), Program "Vietnam - Finland Innovation Partnership (IPP), Project to Promote Innovation creation through scientific and technological research (FIRST)... The problem is clearly define the connotation and concept of innovation to include in the revised Law on Science and Technology. To implement innovation policies, technology application, transfer and innovation activities are very needed. In addition to policy mechanisms, it is necessary to have resources to implement specific tasks, in which sharing international experiences and apply them appropriately to Vietnam. Therefore, MOST needs to soon issue regulations to unify the terms and state management of innovation and innovation startups. The exchanges have provided a lot of valuable information, contributing to amending, supplementing and creating a favorable legal corridor for science, technology and innovation activities in the next period, in which the focus is on the Law on Science and Technology being developed and prepared for revision in the near future.

​He also gave guidance that to carry out the function of state management of science and technology, it is necessary to: focus on building a legal corridor for innovation activities, clearly understand the connotations of innovation and nnovation testing mechanisms; consolidate policies on innovation; clarifying innovative-startups and innovation; promote the science and technology application of to create new products, improve the productivity of startups, science and technology enterprises and foreign-invested enterprises...

Mr. Hoang Minh at the Conference

Minister Huynh Thanh Dat concluded that with frank sharing and exchanges, there was a lack of consensus on the conotation of innovation with the emergence of many new products and services in the industrial context. Industry 4.0 is creating a lack of uniformity in policies, overlapping management, dispersion of resources, and even confusion in managing and promoting the national innovation system. The information is an important premise to shape the development of Science, Technology and Innovation of MOST. The unification of state management awareness of innovation and orientation for the development of the national innovation system needs to be spread to all civil servants, public employees, and workers in MOSY and the whole society. This is an urgent task and has a particularly important meaning, first of all for amending and supplementing the Law on Science and Technology and other Laws chaired by MOST as well as providing comments on regulations related to innovation.

The Minister believes that, with the proactive participation and responsibility of all entities, MOST will quickly and effectively deploy state management functions on innovation assigned by the Government.

Source: SATI