Vietnam aims for global top 30 in innovation

(Chinhphu.vn) - Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Manh Hung said that Vietnam aims to be in the global Top 30 in innovation in the next 5-10 years. To achieve this challenging goal, Vietnam needs to prioritize focusing on 4 pillars and support from WIPO as well as the synchronous participation of ministries, branches, localities, businesses and the whole society.

Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Manh Hung speaks at the workshop - Photo: VGP/TG

On September 25, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) jointly organized a workshop to introduce the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2025 and Vietnam's results.

The workshop provided the latest information on the GII 2025 report, methodological adjustments, the significance of the index, innovation trends and Vietnam's prospects in the coming years.

Speaking at the opening of the workshop, Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Manh Hung emphasized that "Vietnam's innovation must be national innovation".

Innovation must bring science and technology to touch, change and solve practical problems in Vietnam, form a spirit of innovation among all people, make innovation a way of life and lifestyle of all people and organizations, and form a start-up nation based on digital technology and innovation.

The Minister also said that GII is a comprehensive set of innovation indicators, looking at which we can know how to improve Vietnam's innovation capacity. Guiding and analyzing the meaning of each indicator will help Vietnam have a clear basis to improve its capacity, contributing directly to the goal of sustainable development.

Minister Nguyen Manh Hung also proposed that WIPO implement a program to support Vietnam in upgrading its GII ranking, aiming to enter the global top 30 in GII in the next 5 to 10 years . This is a challenging goal, requiring the concerted efforts of the entire political system, the science and technology community and businesses.

“We look forward to the direct support and companionship of WIPO and the Director General of WIPO himself. The Ministry of Science and Technology will be the focal point for close and effective cooperation with WIPO to realize this goal,” the Minister affirmed.

WIPO Director General Daren Tang speaks at the Workshop - Photo: VGP/TG

Four strategic priorities for upgrading innovation

To continue improving Vietnam's position on the GII rankings, Minister Nguyen Manh Hung proposed four key groups of solutions:

Firstly, perfecting the institutions and environment for innovation. Vietnam needs to remove legal barriers, financial mechanisms, and intellectual property; at the same time, encourage businesses to boldly invest in research and development (R&D) and apply new technologies.

From now until the end of the year, three important laws – the Intellectual Property Law, the Technology Transfer Law and the High Technology Law – will be amended to consider research results as assets that can be traded, valued, included in financial reports, and used as collateral for loans or capital contributions.

“The most important shift this time is from protecting rights to capitalizing, commercializing and marketing research results. Intellectual property must become a strategic competitive tool for businesses and the country,” the Minister said, emphasizing: “A developed country is a country where 70-80% of its assets are intellectual property. Vietnam has reached a stage where it needs to prioritize the development of intellectual property to become a developed, high-income country.”

Second, invest in science, technology, innovation and digital infrastructure. Vietnam will build research centers, modern laboratories, supercomputers, open data systems and national interconnectivity – the fundamental foundations for breakthrough innovation.

Third, developing high-quality human resources. The policy will focus on innovating STEM education, promoting links between universities, research institutes and enterprises, and attracting and utilizing domestic and foreign talents.

Fourth, promote innovation in enterprises. Enterprises must be the center of the innovation ecosystem. The State will accompany with financial support programs, venture capital funds, research ordering mechanisms and public procurement priorities for new products.

“If we do well in the four pillars, I believe that the current position on the rankings will continuously improve, but more importantly, creativity will become the true strength of the country, contributing to realizing the goal of a developed, creative and powerful Vietnam by 2040,” the Minister emphasized.

Workshop on Introducing the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2025 and Vietnam's results - Photo: VGP/TG

Vietnam – a model of innovation ecosystem

WIPO Director General Daren Tang highly appreciated Vietnam’s strong progress. He said that Vietnam has set an ambitious goal of becoming an upper-middle-income industrialized country by 2030 and a high-income country by 2045. To achieve this, innovation and intellectual property will be key, with Resolution 57 playing a guiding role, turning science, technology and innovation into a central driving force for development.

According to the GII 2025 report, Vietnam ranked 44/139 economies , 2/37 in the lower middle-income group and 9th in the Southeast Asia, East Asia and Oceania regions. Notably, Vietnam has always maintained outstanding performance compared to its income group over the past decade.

A series of indicators show outstanding strengths such as the proportion of high-tech import and export in trade, export of creative goods, labor productivity growth, mobile application innovation, etc.

One of the important reasons for Vietnam to maintain its outstanding performance is its governance. Since 2017, the Government has considered the GII as a management tool and has continuously proposed solutions to improve each index. In addition, Vietnam has "localized" the GII into the Provincial Innovation Index (PII) , helping localities self-assess and compete fairly; at the same time, it has issued intellectual property policies closely linked to innovation...

At the workshop, Mr. Sacha Wunsch-Vincent , WIPO expert, also made recommendations to help Vietnam continue to improve its GII ranking, focusing on 5 pillars: Investing more and more effectively in R&D; building a close link between science and industry; moving from "assembly" to proactive production; developing a startup ecosystem and growth finance; forming and managing intangible assets well to attract value.

Experts also believe that innovation does not appear naturally, but must be created by institutions, infrastructure, human resources, businesses and synchronous policies. Vietnam is converging all these factors, with high political determination, the companionship of the science and technology community, businesses and international support from WIPO.

Thu Giang

Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/viet-nam-huong-toi-top-30-toan-cau-ve-doi-moi-sang-tao-102250925135653644.htm