Does Vietnam Allocate 5% of its GDP to Science and Technology?

Politburo Member, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has just signed Directive No. 07/CT-TTg to accelerate the implementation of the Project on developing applications of population data, electronic identification, and authentication to serve national digital transformation.

The Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Finance to develop a Plan to promote the implementation of Directive 18/CT-TTg dated May 30, 2023 of the Prime Minister to serve the development of e-commerce, prevent tax losses, ensure monetary security, assign specific responsibilities to each ministry and branch to organize implementation, and complete in March 2025.

Develop and advise the Government on submitting to the National Assembly a Resolution stipulating special mechanisms for investment, public investment, and public procurement of digital products and services to strongly promote national digital transformation in the period 2025-2030, and report to the Government in May 2025.

Allocate state budget expenditure for scientific endeavors serving strategic technologies, meeting the requirements of Resolution 57-NQ/TW submitted to the competent authority, ensuring sufficient allocation of at least 3% of the budget for science and technology, and continue to increase this ratio to 2% of GDP within the next 5 years.

It is possible to immediately allocate a rate of 5% of GDP if deemed necessary and feasible, to build trust among scientists and businesses, to be completed by December 2025

Restructure processes and reuse digitized data to reduce and eliminate the requirement for citizens and businesses to present, submit, or re-declare information and documents that have already been digitized; Prioritize research and implementation of reusing digitized land data to facilitate the reduction of administrative procedures related to residency; District-level and commune-level administrative units that have completed digitization must put it into immediate use in the second quarter of 2025.

Upgrade and improve information technology infrastructure to meet the requirements specified in Document No. 1552/BTTTT-THH and Document No. 708/BTTTT-CATTT of the Ministry of Information and Communications (now the Ministry of Science and Technology); Complete the connection between the information systems for handling administrative procedures at the ministerial and provincial levels with the national population database to serve the resolution of administrative procedures and public services in accordance with the Government's Decree No. 107/2021/ND-CP, to be completed in 2025.

Develop a digital transformation project for ministries and sectors with characteristics similar to Project 06, and ensure its connection with Project 06 with the 11 utilities and goals already developed by the Ministry of Public Security, focusing resources, directing decisive implementation, and deploying it from now until the end of 2025; Put the utilities into regular use to serve digital transformation; mobilize social resources and other legitimate resources to ensure funding for implementation.

Regarding data development, the Prime Minister requires focusing on completing the review and update of the National Data Strategy, to be completed in the second quarter of 2025.

Complete the implementation of building, putting into operation, and using national databases and specialized databases (prioritizing the completion of databases on land, construction, insurance, finance, enterprises, labor and employment, healthcare, and education) and connect and verify them with the national population database by August 2025, synchronizing the data with the National Data Center.