HCMC Chairman: Institute of Advanced Technology, Innovation must operate soon

On the morning of March 4, Mr. Phan Van Mai, Member of the Party Central Committee, Standing Deputy Secretary of the HCMC Party Committee, Chairman of the HCMC People's Committee had a meeting to approve the plan to implement the tasks of the 2022 work program of the Department of Science and Technology of HCMC.

Applying science and technology in State management and socio-economic development

Speaking at the meeting, Chairman of the People's Committee of HCMC Phan Van Mai agreed with the tasks that the Department of Science and Technology would deploy in 2022. At the same time, he requested the Department of Science and Technology to focus on implementing the science and technology application development plan, especially in the field of State management and socio-economic development.

According to Mr. Phan Van Mai, the Department of Science and Technology must proactively mobilize more science and technology resources to participate in decisions for socio-economic development in the city, as well as accelerate other sectors and districts in developing science and technology applications. He emphasized that it is essential to build and implement a mechanism to promote social resources, organizations, experts, and individuals to participate in the research and development of science and technology, bringing science and technology into economic and social development.

The Chairman of the HCMC People's Committee also noted that the Department of Science and Technology must implement a plan to support enterprises in innovating technology, improving capacity, and competitive efficiency. It is necessary to focus on the plan to improve the innovative entrepreneurial capacity, including starting a business again. Along with that, the Department of Science and Technology should focus on completing and reporting to the Standing People's Committee of HCMC for opinions on the organizational model and operating mechanism of the Innovation Entrepreneurship Center; the Department of Science and Technology needs to report to HCMC on the organizational model of the HCMC's Institute of Advanced Technology and Innovation in April this year at the latest. Mr. Phan Van Mai said that the institute must be put into operation soon, becoming a powerful tool in testing mechanisms and models, promoting science and technology, thereby contributing to socio-economic development.

Regarding the use of State budget for science and technology research, Mr. Phan Van Mai noted that the Department of Science and Technology in coordination with the Department of Finance must choose tasks attached with the city's socio-economic development strategy, thereby calling capable organizations and individuals to participate in deployment, research, and implementation.Attracting more than US$1.1 billion in venture capital Previously, Director of HCMC Department of Science and Technology Nguyen Viet Dung said that in 2021, total social spending on science and technology was estimated at VND16.15 trillion, approximately 1.18 percent of HCMC's GRDP. Of which, the business sector accounted for nearly 80 percent. The general rate of innovation in technology and equipment of enterprises reached 8.1 percent. The rate of enterprises with innovative activities in the year was 33.6 percent.

Regarding the startup and innovation ecosystem, during the year, despite being affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, it still developed robustly, becoming the cradle of the startup business community across the country. During the year, there were about 2,000 startups, and 2021 was an active year of the innovative entrepreneurship ecosystem when the amount of venture capital attracted by startups was more than $1.1 billion, accounting for 60 percent of capital and 70 percent of the total transactions of the whole country. HCMC was also a locality in the Top 200 Global Startup Cities in 2021, up 46 notches to stand at 179th place.

In 2022, the Department of Science and Technology will continue to advise on the establishment and put the Institute of Advanced Technology and Innovation in HCMC into operation, serving as the nucleus connecting research centers for strong development; supporting commercialization and technology transfer activities, promoting the application of science and technology to life. The Department of Science and Technology plans to support the improvement of innovation capacity for more than 600 enterprises; supporting the incubation and development of 200 innovative startup projects, including 20 innovative startups accessing venture capital.