Exhibition marks start of work on national innovation center

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (second from right) attend a ceremony to kick-start the 2021 exhibition on innovation and construction of the National Innovation Centre. (Photo: VGP)

Addressing the ceremony, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc noted that innovation can be viewed as vital to the success of the socio-economic development strategies devised by most countries and territories, in addition to bringing about a range of important advantages.

According to the PM, the Party and State are aware of the decisive role of innovation as a means of renewing the growth model, thereby laying a firm foundation for maintaining high and sustainable growth whilst simultaneously creating quality jobs. With the rapid development of Industry 4.0, the country must swiftly adapt and take firm steps to implement a plan.

Referring to great Vietnamese achievements in 2020, the PM stated that Vietnam has received official recognition as a dynamic economy in Asia, with an annual GDP growth rate of 6.3% over the past 10 years. Indeed last year alone saw the country ranked as one of the 16 most successful emerging economies to successfully achieve the dual goal of epidemic prevention and economic recovery. This can be seen through positive growth of 2.9%, making Vietnam among a group of nations to record the highest growth rate in the world.

The PM attributed last year’s success to the country’s efforts in applying technological advances to production and business activities, serving to create added value to the national economy.

As part of the strategy to turn the country into a developed and high-income nation by 2045, PM Phuc said Vietnam must rely on knowledge, science, and technology, especially innovation, all of which can be considered important factors for growth.

Most notably, it is the use of new technology coupled with suitable human resources that will be the decisive factor for long-term growth, the key to achieving development breakthroughs, and helping the country to get out of the middle-income trap, said PM Phuc.

He expressed his great appreciation for the Ministry of Planning and Investment’s initiative to organise the innovation exhibition as a way of promoting the central role of enterprises in the innovation ecosystem and expressing Vietnamese desires to be a regional innovation destination.

The Prime Minister maintained that the commencement of the National Innovation Centre project will create an ideal condition for the local innovation ecosystem to develop and reach out across the globe. He also expressed his hope that the center will be soon come into operation in order to become a pioneering model that can be promoted nationwide.

The exhibition, the first of its kind in the country, has attracted the participation of 113 local businesses, 22 foreign-invested firms, and 21 institutions to showcase new products and technology models across 156 booths.

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