The Vietnam-RoK Institute of Science and Technology (V KIST) will be built next year in the Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park in Hanoi by ODA capital, including $35 million in non-refundable aid.

On the occasion of the visit of the Republic of Korea (RoK) President Park Geun-Hye to Vietnam, the two countries signed an agreement to establish the Vietnam-RoK Institute of Science and Technology, funded by non-refundable aid, to help Vietnam train qualified manpower and strengthen research capacity in the field of science and technology to meet the needs of industrialization and modernization.

According to the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), Korean experts have completed the feasibility survey of the V-KIST establishment project under the model of the leading research institute of Korea – the KIST. The two countries will discuss the necessary content with relevant sides to determine the scope of the project for implementation in 2014.

Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Quan says that Vietnam chooses KIST not other institutions for four reasons. The first is KIST is in the top 10 research institutions in the world. Many Nobel Prize and famous sci-tech prize winners often visit KIST and deliver lectures there.

Second, Korea and Vietnam have many similarities. Korea built KIST more than 10 years after the Korean War, when this country was poor and faced many difficulties.

Third, the model and the mechanism of operation of KIST is in Western style. Fourth, the Korean Government particularly supports this project possible and Korea can grant ODA to Vietnam.

KIST is the cradle of science and technology of Korea. This institute makes research on order and most of the research projects are applied in leading industrial conglomerates in Korea. According to statistics, KIST research works contribute nearly 30 percent of the value increase of industrial products of this country.

KIST (Korea Institute of Science and Technology) was founded in 1966 in Seoul, with the task of solving the pressing technical problems of production, directing South Korea to developed society based on modern technology. KIST is also one of the important factors to promoting the development of science and technology, industrialization in Korea in the 70s-80s.

In 2012, during a visit to South Korea, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung proposed the Korean government to support Vietnam’s establishment an institute under the KIST model.