Some local newspapers have painted a gloomy
picture of Viet Nam's so-called decline on the World Intellectual
Property Rights (WIPO) index. They pointed out correctly that the nation
had been listed 76th out of 141 countries in its global rankings.
While the ranking is, indeed, 25 positions lower
than last year, according to WIPO analysts, it does not indicate the
country is under-performing in terms of creativity and innovation. They
said the change was due to the addition of new economies and other
adjustments to the index's framework.
But as the nation moves towards middle-income
status, being placed at the bottom half of the global rankings is
worrisome. It is beyond Viet Nam's wildest dream to catch up with its
neighbour, Singapore, ranked third globally. And it is far from Malaysia
(32nd) and Thailand (57th).
How far does Viet Nam have to go to be judged a
success in creativity and innovation? Of course, it's impossible to
measure, but by looking at the current performances in education,
training, science and technology, there is not much room for confidence.
Some think that gaining a place at university is a
hard-won effort, and truly it is because, while some universities
require a minimum score for three subjects of 24-25 points, at others,
entry is too easy. For example, the passing point to a few universities –
mostly private – was a low 13 this year, which means three or four out
of 10 points for one subject is enough to make the university dream come
true.
Worse, some students are even invited to join a
university or college without sitting for an entrance exam. The names of
the establishments are new, indicating their thirst for new students –
or money, to be precise.
Undoubtedly, the quality of their training
promises little in the way of a rosy future for national innovation.
Some would argue that the number of these universities are too few to
worry about. Probably true. Yet the number of doctorate holders and
professors versus the few internationally-recognised scientific papers
or patent applications can be viewed as alarming.
According to Nguyen Van Tuan from the
Sydney-based Garvan Institute, international standards require each
professor or associate professor to produce at least one peer-reviewed
scientific paper. If this was applied in Viet Nam, the country should
have had at least 8,000 such papers by 2009. But Tuan said the figure
for Vietnamese papers published in international journals was about
1,000 at the time – one-third of those from Thailand and a sixth of
those from Singapore.
According to an article published last month on
e-newspaper VietNamNet, Viet Nam had only five patents granted in the
United States between 2006-10, and none in 2011 – yet it has 9,000
professors. The number granted, as pointed out in the article by two
Ph.Ds, was "an important and objective index to judge a country's
scientific achievements". Viet Nam's total was disturbing, especially
when compared with seven in Indonesia, 53 in Thailand and 647 in
Singapore in 2011.
But, let's not under-estimate the country's
capabilities. Viet Nam has had an amazing number of student champions at
international competitions, for instance, at the Olympiad in maths,
chemistry or informatics every year.
The country does have world-recognised talents,
for example, 40-year-old Professor Ngo Bao Chau, winner of Fields Medal
2010, often described as the Nobel Prize of Mathematics. Other
Vietnamese professors of note include Trinh Xuan Thuan, a writer and
astrophysicist, who won this year's Cino Del Duca World Prize from the
Institute of France for his efforts to popularise science; and Hoang
Tuy, a mathematician named in September 2011 as the first recipient of
the Constantin Caratheodory Prize from the International Society of
Global Optimisation for his pioneering work.
Why can't these figures be multiplied? Looking at
what our children are taught at school, the explanation is simple. At
either State or private schools, children are asked to learn by heart or
repeatedly do sums before exams. In the end, most of them get high
marks or at least, are not failures.
Looking at payment and incentives made to
scientists, all would agree that they are insufficient to lead a
conservative life let alone to devote time to developing breakthroughs
or new technologies. A recent conference in Ha Noi heard that a
professor or associate professor in agriculture received VND5 million
(US$240) a month and a PhD VND4 million ($195). Not much of an incentive
to do anything!
But why does innovation matter? Ben Verwaay-en,
chief executive of Alcatel-Lucent said: "Innovation is a crucial element
of competitiveness. For organisations, companies, and countries to
remain competitive and to grow, they must innovate."
Viet Nam must grow and become more competitive! I
pin my hopes on the world's leading scientists who have gathered in HCM
City this week for a three-day international conference on advances in
computational mechanics. Many of them are Vietnamese. I also pin my
hopes on reforms that would enable children to have a more innovative
and creative education instead of learning by rote. — VNS
by Thu Phuong
