Ba Ria - Vung Tau Offers More Support for Businesses Applying Science and Technology

Implementing Decree No. 119/1999/ND-CP dated September 18, 1999 of the Government on a number of policies and financial mechanisms to encourage enterprises to invest in scientific and technological activities, the governing People’s Committee of Ba Ria - Vung Tau province issued the “Scientific and technological support business” programme in the 2001-2005 period. This was the first phase of the business support programme. So far, the programme has elapsed the 2006-2010 phase, 2011-2013 phase and 2014-2020 phase. The 2014-2020 phase is defined as a period of major breakthrough in the province. During this period, before the urgent needs of enterprises for improving the quality, efficiency and competitiveness in the context of accelerated global economic integration, the Ba Ria - Vung Tau province merged the "Ba Ria - Vung Tau Programme for Scientific and Technological Support for Businesses” with the “Ba Ria - Vung Tau Project for Enhancing Productivity and Quality of Key Products” into the “Scientific and Technological Support for Businesses to Raise Productivity and Quality of Products Programme in the 2014-2020 phase".

 

With the overall goal of supporting businesses, enhancing their competitiveness in the process of regional and international economic integration, the merger has entailed a big support programme of the province. The programme has helped businesses to change their mindset of applying scientific and technological innovations to management, production and business. A lot of domestic and foreign advanced technologies and equipment have been applied to production to raise labour productivity, increase product quality and lower cost products aimed to sharpen the competitiveness of local products on the market. The programme has also helps businesses to access information about modern technological solutions applicable to management, production and promotion of products from which they can choose suitable ones.

 

The contents of the programme include training support: up to VND50 million for a project; support for construction, application and maintenance of management systems and tools used for improving productivity and quality: up to VND30-100 million a system or tool; support for standardisation acceleration and support for honouring of enterprises winning national quality awards: up to VND100 million an award; support for intellectual property development: up to VND50 million a time; support for cleaner production and environmental pollution mitigation: up to VND500 million a project; support for new energy, renewable energy and energy-saving applications: up to VND300 million a project; support for technological and equipment innovation: up to VND500 million a project; support for information technology application: up to VND150 million per software; comprehensive support for productivity and quality improvement of products: funds may be higher than the limits proposed by the Advisory Council and decided by the Provincial People's Committee.

 

Mr Mai Thanh Quang, Director of the Department of Science and Technology, the programme with rich support contents and huge supports is a great help for businesses when they upgrade technologies, improve manufacturing processes and enhance product quality. Given clear effects, the programme has seen more and more companies register for participation. Specifically, 20 companies were granted a combined support of VND1.145 billion in 2013; and 53 were granted a total of VND4.908 billion 2014. In the first three months of 2015, 19 businesses received VND1,898.5 billion of financial supports. The Department of Science and Technology also assisted businesses with training courses to enrich their knowledge of productivity and quality and apply scientific and technological progresses. The programme has helped 230 companies from 2001 (when the programme was launched) to the end of April 2015.

 

He said the Department of Science and Technology and the Department of Finance worked together to issue instructions for application forms and procedures for payment settlement for Scientific and technological support programme for enterprises. The instructions, which also include conditions for applying application forms, are published on the website of the Department of Science and Technology and the website of the Department of Standards and Quality. This is also another success of the programme.

 

To promote the initial achievements, the Department of Science and Technology will continue to implement the programme on a larger scale and make it a driving force for enterprises to make intensive investments for scientific and technological innovation application for sustainable development.