Most of strong, sustainable enterprises have applied science technologies to production process. Despite many domestic bankrupt enterprises and recession lately, enterprises with technology still survive. However, the technological application was only counted on the fingers because of confusion from governmental policies ... A discussion of excellence companies in technological innovation on this topic took place at Minh Sang Plaza.
Enterprises still have to struggle themselves
As a pioneer in the technological application, Mr. Ly Ngoc
Minh, General Director of Minh Long I Ltd. Company, said, technology cost him a
great deal of effort and money. Since 1996, with accumulated money and
knowledge, he began to fulfill a dream from the childhood of seeing ceramic exhibitions
in Lai Thieu. However, where to start, how to do it, were so vague because of
the switch from ceramic to porcelain production. Hence Mr. Minh started his traveling
from Japan to Germany, Italy, France, England, Korea, China ... to find technological solution.
Finally, he decided on German technology to develop his company's products. 
Ms. Pham Lan Chi (standing) said the connection between enterprises and science technology is still an unsolved problem
For high quality products, Minh Long I Company had to invest in 5 technology companies at the same time for materials production, mold, glaze…, simultaneously imported the CNC automatic for manufacturing. Now Minh Long I is the second company importing this machine. However, this is not a fully automated machine, because porcelain manufacturing requires complexity and details. According to Mr. Minh, input is the most important for technological innovation, because without a good chicken or a fresh shrimp, we cannot prepare a delicious dish. "Therefore, we have to learn all of input technologies to become to the present Minh Long I Company" said Mr. Ly Ngoc Minh.
Dr. Nguyen Thanh My, My Lan Group President, said that policies to protect creative businesses are necessary. "Tariff barrier should be set on the market to oppose to dump goods. This is an example, if we want to export an offset printout to China, we must incur 17% of tax payment, but if importing from China, the taxation is just 5%. China has good supporting policies, their goods thus have low prices and are easy to export”.
Survive by science and technology
It is the story of Mr. Nguyen Doan Thang, General Director of Rang Dong Light – Plugs JSC. If they do not have the research and development team, the company could not survive, not to mention growing, according to Mr. Thang. "We invite former or incumbent scientists in universities, institutions to establish a research and development center for the company. Thanks to this, we have shortened the huge gap in science and technology. Actually, if we did not own science, our company would have not existed ... “, he said.
He also gave an example, in September 2012, the government passed a resolution that from January 1st 2013, incandescent bulb above 60W would be prohibited. Meanwhile in 2012, the company produced 48 mln incandescent bulbs, in which bulbs above 60W accounted for 47%. According to the resolution, more than a half of revenue and 200 workers thus had to leave the company. How can they quickly switch to produce necessary products such as compact fluorescents, environmental protecting LED lamps..., while either workers were not able to do that or retraining for 5 years. Nevertheless, thanks to scientific knowledge, we changed our production, and our revenue were always higher, despite of the difficult economy.
Cannot have the ask-give mechanism
Economist Ms. Pham Chi Lan shared, former Prime Minister Phan Van Khai stressed scientific technological development aside from expanding business. However, the connecting between business communities with technology is not so successful. "We now have 400 institutes but cannot connect with many businesses. Even in agricultural sector that, exporting output is always on top, but quality and price cannot compare with other countries. Last year, Vietnam exported 1 mln. tons of rice more than Thailand, but our revenue was $1 bln. lower than Thailand. It is the same for coffee production. Therefore, the connection between science and enterprises is still difficult, even for innovative companies. The concerns about institutional mechanisms are still the same as the first day that Prime Minister Phan Van Khai met with businesses in 1997, though many years have passed”, she said.
Prof. Tran Dinh Thien, Director of the Vietnam Institute of Economics, said: "It is inadequate to apply for mechanisms to innovate instead of encouragement in many localities. At the present, if Vietnam wants to integrate into the global technologies, we must have suitable policies and actions". According to Mr. Thien, our competitive advantages in recent years have seriously declined, namely we have been 16 ranks lower than the last two years.
Thus, technological innovative enterprises are most competitive companies develop in the competitive free market, otherwise companies will not have the motivation to innovate. They must be seen as the national economic leadership. Scientific technological strategy must be the axial strategy of socio-economic development, as long as you have not set it in place, the economy is not able to break through.
Minister of Science and Technology Mr. Nguyen Quan: The number of businesses applying science and technology to production is still modest
We are very proud of enterprises such as Minh Long I, Trung Nguyen, Naiscorp, Rang Dong ... Leaders of these companies are very active and successful in technological innovation. In the difficult economic context, these companies remain sustainable development. This is an evident that science technology is the foundation of development. We will also organize more seminars to exchange experiences between companies and scientists to improve procedures and policies in order to facilitate scientific technological development of enterprises.
I think, if companies want to survive, we must firstly self-renewal. However, to grow faster, companies also need supports from the State like policies, taxation. As they invest in new technologies, they just have to incur a low VAT tax rate or be exempt partly from income tax to increase capital for reinvestment. Besides, banks also need to support businesses with low-interest loans.
(Mr. Ly Ngoc Minh)
Reported by Trung Dong – Translated by Ngoc Huynh
