Resolution No. 19-NQ/TW dated July 28, 2026, on renewing Viet Nam’s development model clearly states the need to apply special mechanisms to attract multinational corporations, research organisations, and international talents to participate in science and technology programmes in Viet Nam.
At present, as Politburo Resolution No. 57-NQ/TW on breakthroughs in science, technology, innovation, and national digital transformation, together with Resolution No. 59-NQ/TW on international integration in the new situation, is being implemented, international cooperation is helping tos expand relations while directly contributing to improving national science and technology capacity. It supports Viet Nam in gradually mastering strategic technologies and enhancing competitiveness in the knowledge era. Building, connecting, and effectively bringing into play international scientific networks will take Vietnamese science to the world, while also bringing the world to Viet Nam to conduct science together and jointly address the country’s major development challenges.
In recent times, research agencies and units have always attached importance to international cooperation and achieved important results. At the Viet Nam Academy of Science and Technology, for example, 51 international cooperation agreements at academy and affiliated-unit levels were signed in 2025, focusing on important fields such as space technology, materials science, energy, data science, and environmental science.
Alongside this, the Viet Nam Academy of Science and Technology is implementing 45 tasks and preparing to launch 57 new cooperation tasks in the 2026-2029 period. Cooperation programmes have enabled scientists to access advanced research directions, improve their qualifications and gradually receive and master new technologies.
In 2025, the academy also welcomed 27 international delegations for visits and working sessions, helping to promote scientific cooperation and technology transfer, especially in strategic technology fields. It also actively participated in international scientific organisations such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR), and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), thereby contributing to strengthening Viet Nam’s contributions to global scientific programmes.
In 2025, Viet Nam National University, Ha Noi organised 93 international conferences, seminars, discussions, and lectures, attracting the participation of nearly 700 leading experts and scientists from around the world. These were important academic activities that helped to improve staff capacity, training, and research quality as well as enhance its position in the international arena.
Viet Nam National University, Ha Noi has also been repeatedly invited to join leading international alliances and networks on artificial intelligence and digital transformation, and is recognised as an equal partner in the global scientific community. A notable example is the AI Alliance Network, which brings together 17 international AI associations from 14 countries, with more than 7,000 members and partners.
Despite some positive results, many experts say that, in the current context of reform, international cooperation in science and technology in Viet Nam still has limitations and has yet to truly meet requirements. Many cooperation programmes and projects have stopped at the level of academic exchange and are not yet closely linked with market demand. Financial mechanisms and intellectual property protection remain overlapping, while procedures for receiving experts and research equipment are still complicated. Therefore, in the coming period, cooperation needs to shift strongly from the signing of agreements to the creation of real domestic capacity in research and development (R&D), talent, data, computing infrastructure, technology transfer, and markets.
Prof, Dr Tran Hong Thai, President of the Viet Nam Academy of Science and Technology, said the development of international scientific networks should be carried out through four closely connected courses of action. First, Vietnamese personnel should be sent abroad to directly participate in places where new knowledge and technologies are being formed. If Viet Nam wants to gradually master technology, it cannot merely receive completed results, but must be present early in major international programmes, laboratories, and research infrastructure. In that way, Vietnamese scientists can become part of the international scientific community that creates the knowledge and technologies of the future.
Alongside this, Vietnamese scientists need to be supported to participate and gradually hold positions in international scientific organisations; and join the process of building agendas, determining research directions, proposing initiatives, developing standards, and contributing to the allocation of international scientific resources.
Together with sending personnel abroad for study and research, conditions should be created for international scientists to come to Viet Nam to work, train human resources, and jointly address the country’s specific science and technology challenges. Therefore, there must be financial mechanisms, research conditions and a working environment attractive enough to draw leading experts, along with resources to invite them, ensure laboratories and collaborating teams, and provide favourable procedures.
Notably, Viet Nam also needs to proactively host, organise, and chair reputable international conferences, forums, science schools, and specialised workshops. These events should be organised in depth, linked to fields in which Viet Nam has strengths or strategic needs, and geared towards forming joint research programmes, cooperation groups, and long-term scientific initiatives.
