The policy of the Party and State is to accelerate the transformation of the growth model based on the application of science, technology and innovation, to improve the productivity, quality and competitiveness of the economy. Many enterprises identify innovation as the driving force and the optimal solution, to enhance competitiveness in the context of increasingly extensive and comprehensive international economic integration.

The National Research Institute of Mechanical Engineering (NARIME) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade is one of the agencies that was forced to transform itself to adapt to Vietnam’s transition into a market economy. Entering the new period, the NARIME no longer performed tasks assigned by the State but seeks contracts itself, to provide machines, equipment and services to customers.

The institute has focused on developing its capacity regarding consultancy, design and high technology, to be capable of being a contractor for projects designing and manufacturing high-tech machinery and equipment. NARIME Director Phan Dang Phong said that the institute has entered into a joint venture with domestic and foreign companies, to gain knowledge and receive technology transfers. The institute has so far participated in designing, manufacturing and supplying equipment for more than 30 hydropower projects, with a total value of tens of thousands of billion Vietnamese dong.

Lumi Vietnam Joint Stock Company, one of the providers of smart home solutions, with more than 135 distributors nationwide and more than 40,000 customers, has also gone through a journey of studying and researching to create “Make in Vietnam” technology products. Lumi CEO Nguyen Duc Tai said, that at the time when the company was established, his company spent 50% of their time on product research.

“Make in Vietnam” technology enterprises in general and smart home enterprises, in particular, face many difficulties in terms of research, production and sales, amid fierce competition. The main reason is that consumers do not know or have very little information about the fact that smart homes have a platform in Vietnam. One of the biggest barriers to consumers when accessing smart home products is the lack of information and users are worried about compatibility between devices, stability and information security.

If “Make in Vietnam” technology products can solve these concerns, users will put their trust in domestic products. To this end, Lumi Vietnam Joint Stock Company has trained quality human resources in the IoT area, to support research and development activities and also provided IoT human resources for the community, through training cooperation activities with major universities across the country.

Thanks to the application of modern technology, Nafoods Group Joint Stock Company has mastered the processing of passion fruit. After more than 10 years of trial planting, a growing area of passion fruit was set up in Nghe An, including a processing and exporting process. Currently, Nafoods has six varieties of passion fruit and products from passion fruit have been exported to 70 countries around the world.

The research and application of science and technology have helped improve the competitiveness of Vietnamese products, meeting the needs of domestic and export markets. According to experts, Vietnam needs more businesses that can master background technology, to reach the regional and world level in the coming time.

Research capacity needs to be enhanced while new production capacity should be formed to be capable of adapting and resisting the market. In addition, the establishment of science and technology enterprises should be encouraged to fulfil their role as research and development centres.