Even Commies Support Entrepreneurship

Whatever happened to that "workers of the world unite" stuff?

Tran Quoc Thang is the Deputy Minister of Science and Technology for the (still Communist) Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Here’s what he had to say in a recent interview about Vietnamese scientists’ efforts to commercialize new tech:

In developed countries, about 15 to 20 per cent of products invented are invested in and brought to market. But in Viet Nam, only about 5 to 10 per cent of inventions make it out to society. However, the products that have been applied have brought back lots of benefit. For example, a high-tech group at Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park has applied its product to clean a lake in Ha Noi; another group successfully discovered medicine to treat a disease of lobsters, which greatly benefited fish farmers.

[…]

We don’t lack money. We just lack feasible projects. We have lots of people who got high rankings in international competitions in math, physics and chemistry but have problems in applying their research… Scientists must find out what the society needs and have the will of a businessman. If not, their research projects will be worthless or of less value. Money will be wasted without making a breakthrough.

We have defined four key fields in science and technology to focus on which are information technology, construction materials, biology and automation. As an agriculture-based country with a high volume of agricultural products, we can invest more in preserving technology and post-harvest processing. In the high-tech field such as new energy, clean energy and nanotechnology, the Government is very willing to support all feasible projects. Breakthroughs in these areas are very important for scientists and businessmen. This is because scientific and technological products eventually become goods in the marketplace. Once they become goods, they will be accepted in the society and bought. Thus, the scientists will have orders for research.

Source: http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=01COM050109