Technology innovation promoted for global integration

Applying advanced technology is a prerequisite for Vietnamese enterprises to ensure their competitive capacity in the context of deep integration, which opens both benefits and setbacks for the country, said Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Quan.

Vietnamese goods have maintained their share of the domestic markets thanks to safeguarding measures from the government, according to the minister. He highlighted that those protective measures will be abolished once the country joins the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement and ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), which is forecast to pose tremendous challenges to locally-made products, including those which are traditionally Vietnam’s strength such as rice.

The key to competitiveness is high quality and low cost, which can only be achieved by technology innovation, Quan said, adding that technology reforms not only mean modern machinery but also new management systems as well as manpower.

He also stressed that enterprises must pay attention to intellectual property rights to prevent lawsuits and market loss when the TPP agreement comes into effect.

The Prime Minister asked for technology modernisation to be carried out at 15-20 percent every year but it is currently moving at a sluggish rate, Quan underscored, adding that the Ministry will create favourable mechanisms and policies to help enterprises renew their technology but the enterprises themselves must play the main role.-VNA