The HCMC People’s Committee has approved Decision No.35/2023/QD-UBND about Regulations on Managing scientific tasks using state budget in HCMC (Regulation 35), creating more favorable conditions to scientific order giving.

Director of the HCMC Department of Science and Technology Nguyen Viet Dung informed that each year, the city allocates 2 percent of its budget for scientific-technological activities, yet this amount has not been used up because many state agencies and districts are not paying proper attention to developing plans or goals to address current issues via science-technology.

In the 2020-2022 period, HCMC received 165 registration for scientific-technological missions at city level, with an increase in those for science and technology, medical technology, and social science. Some noticeable projects are in the fields of nano material, mechanical engineering, chemicals, international human resource training, artificial intelligence applications in healthcare, medicine development, digital platform establishment.

The total expense for those missions is VND351.35 billion (US$14.4 million), including about VND318 billion ($13 million) from the city budget (accounting for over 90 percent of the total amount). The rest comes from the capital of the organization in charge of the task, the sponsored money of businesses or other organizations.

Regulation 35 offers more favorable conditions for units giving scientific orders. Therefore, state departments and agencies or the local authorities in need should cooperate with the HCMC Science-Technology Department to seek the most feasible solution for each scientific-technological mission and then give orders to capable educational institutes.

Deputy Director Huynh Luu Trung Phung of the Science Management Office (under the HCMC Science-Technology Department) noticed important content in Regulation 35 related to requirements for mission conducting, the science-technology consultation council, the expense evaluation team for missions, mission management, mission undertaking, rules to allocate money for missions, the assignment of non-profit state units to carry out missions.

In particular, the following missions can pay all of their expenses with the city budget: those in the announced list of the municipal Department of Science and Technology, those directly assigned according to regulation, those receiving an evaluation result of 80/100 points and creating products to serve the public sector or the community and businesses, those with breakthrough products.

“Formerly, a scientific-technological mission had to have its report prepared every 6 months, and those carried out under 12 months or with a budget of less than VND150 million ($6,200) did not need appraisal. Regulation 35, however, stipulates that scientists have to report their progress every 3 months, and appraisal is needed for all mission except special cases approved by the Director of the Science-Technology Department”, said Deputy Director Phung.

Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Incubation Center of Saigon Hi-tech Park Phan Thi Thuy Ly commented that compared to previous regulation, the new one gives more benefits to scientific-technological organizations, especially the businesses wishing to carry out scientific-technological missions. This is because Regulation 35 clearly identifies the role and responsibility of all parties taking part in each mission, specific procedures for each expense type. This transparency obviously encourages the participation of units in scientific-technological missions.

Director Nguyen Viet Dung noticed that the missions affected by Regulation 35 observe major orientations of HCMC like smart urban area establishment, innovation in the public sector, digital transformation processes. After scientific and technological missions are successfully ordered and assigned to research units, when accepted, they must solve the specific problems posed by the ordering unit itself.