Towards mastering core and foundation technology
The draft Law on High Technology (amended) defines technology not only as a priority area for investment but also as a strategic pillar to ensure economic security, national defense, and national sovereignty.
Continuing the 50th session, at the National Assembly House, the National Assembly Standing Committee gave opinions on the draft Law on High Technology (amended).
Develop strategic technologies, towards the formation of a high-tech industrial ecosystem
The report on the draft Law on High Technology (amended) was presented by Permanent Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Vu Hai Quan. The Law on High Technology was promulgated in 2008, so far many regulations are outdated, inconsistent, and no longer suitable for practice.
Meanwhile, the legal system on science, technology and innovation is being comprehensively adjusted, requiring the Law on High Technology to be amended to ensure uniformity, synchronization and create a legal foundation for development.
The draft includes 6 chapters and 27 articles, reducing 8 articles and having changes in structure and form compared to the current law. Policy groups include perfecting the concept and criteria of high technology; redesign the system of policies and beneficiaries of priority, incentive and investment support policies; encouraging the development of high-tech ecosystems; supplementing regulations on models of high-tech parks and high-tech cities; supplement and complete regulations on state management of high technology, mechanisms for management, inspection, supervision and evaluation of effectiveness; supplementing regulations on requirements for comprehensive digital transformation of high-tech activities.
In addition, the draft also supplements a number of regulations on criteria for high-tech, strategic technology, and high-tech cities. At the same time, a number of framework regulations are cut as a basis for simplifying administrative procedures and regulations in the direction of decentralizing to provincial-level People's Committees in order to give them the authority to implement policies, programs and projects on high-tech and strategic technology development.
A notable new point of the draft is the addition of a high-tech urban model (Tech City, Smart Tech Zone), a high-tech development area associated with modern infrastructure, a sustainable living and working environment.
Accordingly, the high-tech city will take the high-tech park as the nucleus, be synchronously planned in terms of technical and social infrastructure, have a flexible governance mechanism, and organizations and individuals operating here will be prioritized to participate in scientific programs. national technology and innovation.
Vice Chairman of the Committee on Science, Technology and Environment Nguyen Phuong Tuan said that the Standing Committee agreed with the need to promulgate the draft Law.
Basically, the contents of the draft Law are in line with the Party's guidelines, ensuring constitutionality, legality, consistency with the legal system, and compatibility with relevant international treaties; ensuring feasibility.
However, it is proposed to consider supplementing the contents of training and development of high-tech human resources, product commercialization, data security management, and protection of intellectual property rights.
Along with that, a number of contents need to continue to be studied and reviewed such as: Criteria for determining high technologies prioritized for development investment and strategic technologies; criteria for identifying high-tech products encouraged for development and strategic technological products; developing a high-tech ecosystem; high-tech cities; high-tech agricultural zones.
Commenting on the draft, Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly Nguyen Thi Thanh said that the model of high-tech agricultural zones has been proving the effectiveness of modernization in agriculture, improving productivity, quality and competitiveness of Vietnamese agricultural products.
High-tech agricultural zones are one of the important solutions to promote the application of science, technology, research and sustainable green agricultural production. Therefore, it is proposed that the drafting agency study and supplement appropriate regulations or have transitional regulations to maintain and develop this model, contributing to agricultural modernization and sustainable development.
Regarding strategic technology research and development policies, Article 12 of the draft Law stipulates that enterprises are allowed to include financing or investment costs for strategic technology research and development into deductible expenses when determining tax income.
The draft Law is more extensive with the current provisions in the Law on Corporate Income Tax. Therefore, it is proposed that the drafting agency coordinate with relevant agencies to study and review, in order to both keep this content and not contravene the provisions of the Law on Corporate Income Tax.
Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly Nguyen Thi Thanh also emphasized that the draft law needs to study regulations on the allocation of the State budget expenditure ratio for strategic technology research and development activities, avoiding overlap with the Law on Science, Technology and Innovation.
High technology is the pillar of national security, defense and sovereignty
Explaining the draft Law on High Technology (amended), Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Manh Hung emphasized that the thinking on high technology has changed, high technology has become a strategic pillar, the backbone of economic security, national defense, national competitiveness and associated with national sovereignty. This amended law must clearly express that view.
The Minister said that Vietnam has announced a list of 11 strategic technology groups that must be mastered, which is considered a declaration of autonomy and self-reliance. On that basis, the draft Law has been divided into types of high technology, strategic technology, and core technology to distinguish management. Core technology is the innermost loop, Vietnam must make and hold it itself. Next, strategic technology is the outer ring, a priority area to ensure autonomy. Finally, high technology is the outermost circle, serving the development of the country.
The amendment of the Law this time is like injecting some new DNA shots into the old structure, creating a new genome that reflects the Party's new ideology on science and technology without breaking the current structure, the Minister said.
According to Minister Nguyen Manh Hung, one of the most fundamental changes in the draft Law on High Technology (amended) is to clarify the content of high technology and introduce stricter preferential conditions, linking incentives with domestic capacity. If the enterprise only assembles, the value created is only 10%, without an R&D center, without mastering the core technology, should it be preferential or not, the minister raised the issue.
The Minister pointed out that the Law on High Technology was promulgated in 2008, in the past 20 years, the high-tech incentive mechanism is mainly aimed at assembly and processing without taking into account the domestic rate or the level of technology transfer. This draft Law overcomes that limitation, requiring FDI to be associated with technology transfer, human resource training and research and development in Vietnam. High-tech enterprises will be evaluated annually, instead of only needing a certificate to be able to enjoy incentives for many years without post-inspection.
Minister Nguyen Manh Hung said that the drafting agency will consider as many opinions as possible to complete the draft and submit it to the National Assembly for consideration in the coming time.
In his concluding remarks, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Le Minh Hoan highly appreciated the Government, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Committee for Science, Technology and Environment, and agencies of the National Assembly for preparing a complete and elaborate draft Law.
The National Assembly Standing Committee agreed on the necessity of promulgating the Law, assessing that the content of the draft Law has basically followed the Party's guiding viewpoint, fully institutionalized the policy, in order to improve the legal system, meet the goal of rearranging the organizational apparatus of local government at 2 levels. reform administrative procedures, solve bottlenecks in the provisions of law./.
Translated by Vietnam Journal of Science and Technology (VJST - MOST).
