Minister Nguyen Manh Hung: Social sciences play a special role in institutional design, nurturing values, and guiding social behavior
The message from the Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Manh Hung was delivered during Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's working session with the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences on February 24, 2026.
The Vietnam Journal of Science and Technology respectfully presents the speech by Minister Nguyen Manh Hung at the working session:
The Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences is the country’s leading research center for social sciences and humanities. This is a gathering place for intellects, serving as the "thinking brain" regarding people, society, institutions, culture, and development - the core factors that constitute the identity and sustainable strength of a nation.
The Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, along with the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology and the two national universities, are the four flagship units for the nation's fundamental science. Every year, the Ministry of Science and Technology organizes cooperation conferences with these four national flagship units.
On the part of the Ministry of Science and Technology, we clearly define our responsibility as designing appropriate institutions for the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences to better fulfill its role. The Ministry will continue to perfect research funding mechanisms toward greater stability for basic science and social sciences, while opening flexible mechanisms to connect research with application.
The budget structure for basic science and social sciences will be stabilized at 15-20% for the 2025-2030 period, equivalent to 5-10 trillion VND per year, many times higher than before. The research budget for the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences in 2026 is also expected to increase at least threefold compared to 2025, and the Academy will implement management under a fund-based mechanism. The Ministry of Science and Technology has also planned to invest in several key social research infrastructures to be located at the Academy, particularly social science data infrastructure, social survey infrastructure, and AI infrastructure to process the Academy's massive data base.
In a world transforming very rapidly, science-technology, innovation, and digital transformation are becoming direct drivers of growth. But especially in that context, we recognize an important truth: technology can move very fast, but if society does not keep up, it will create risks; the economy may grow strongly, but without a socio-humanistic foundation, that growth will not be sustainable. And it is precisely here that the role of social sciences and humanities becomes particularly important.
Social science is not just a field that "follows after" to interpret reality, but must stay one step ahead to shape the future. As the country enters major transitions - digital transformation, green transition, innovation of growth models, and institutional reform - the question is not only "how", but also "for whom", "who benefits", "what the social impacts are", and "where Vietnamese values lie within those transitions".
Vietnam is facing the demand for faster and more sustainable development than ever before. We cannot rely solely on capital, cheap labor, or resource exploitation. We must rely on knowledge, institutions, and people. Among these three pillars, social science holds a special role in institutional design, nurturing values, and guiding social behavior. Good institutions do not occur naturally; they are the product of scientific thinking, of summarizing practice, and of forecasting the future.
For the Ministry of Science and Technology, we consider social sciences and humanities an inseparable part of the national science, technology, and innovation ecosystem. If natural sciences help us understand and master the material world, then social sciences help us understand and lead society. These two fields are not opposites but complementary; they are not separate but must be connected more closely than ever, like "yin" and "yang," like two sides of a single coin.
The Ministry of Science and Technology hopes that the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences will continue to strongly innovate its research thinking. Research should not only be for publication but to impact policy; not just to describe but to propose solutions; not just to understand the past but to create the future. The major issues of the country - administrative reform, digital economic development, national governance, social change in the digital era, and building the Vietnamese people for a new age - urgently need deep, independent social scientific voices with long-term vision.
In the coming time, the Ministry of Science and Technology wishes to strengthen coordination with the Academy in three aspects. First, ordering research on major problems and strategic issues associated with policy planning and national development requirements. Second, connecting social sciences with science-technology and innovation, forming interdisciplinary research, especially regarding the social, ethical, and institutional impacts of new technologies. Third, building an elite social science intellectual workforce with independent thinking capacity, policy criticism skills, and international integration.
I believe that in the new era, whichever nation understands its society more deeply will go further. Technology can be bought, capital can be borrowed, but knowledge about Vietnamese people and society must be built by ourselves. And the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences is the place to shoulder that mission.
I wish that the Academy will continue to strongly develop and I wish the scientists health, wisdom, and creative inspiration to steadily step into the future with the country./.
Copyright belongs to the Vietnam Journal of Science and Technology (VJST-MOST)
