Viet Nam will soon start work on a US$150 million research institute where scientists could earn three times more than the current State-regulated salary

Inspired by the Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) in South Korea, the Viet Nam - Korea Institute for Science and Technology (V-KIST) aims to elevate the quality of scientific research produced in the country by both improving facilities and raising salaries.

Current research institutes in Viet Nam pay scientists extremely low wages, one of the main reasons their research lags behind international work.

The Government would create new regulations for V-KIST scientists, meaning they could be paid three times more than the state-regulated salary for the country's top professors, said Mai Ha, head of the International Co-operation Department at the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Vietnamese professors made an average of only US$200 in 2008, according to the Government Portal, an amount that experts say meets only one-fourth of professors' basic needs and those of their families.

In the first phase of the project, expected to be completed in 2017, South Korea will provide $35 million in free aid while Viet Nam takes charge of the remaining $35 million.

In the following four years, Viet Nam will expand the facility with an estimated $50 - 80 million in official development assistance capital from South Korea.

The institute will focus on material technology, biology for agriculture and medicine and information technology, Ha said.

The project was initially proposed during Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung's visit to South Korea in 2012.

The Ministry of Science and Technology is working on a feasibility study for the project, which is expected to be completed next year.