What has led to the conflicts of interest?
Investors mostly want to play it safe, utilising low cost investments, yet expecting the best machines and equipment from prestigious foreign suppliers. Many Vietnamese investors also prefer hiring foreign contractors to complete projects from start to finish (EPC - Engineering, Procurement and Construction).
A few big investors do however prefer Vietnamese researchers and manufacturers in order to place themselves in pro-active positions in terms of equipment design, technology transfer, operation and maintenance, believing that capital viability would be higher this way round than with an EPC modality.
None of the big Vietnamese investors have been able to do this as yet however, having neither the capacity nor the power to gather researchers and manufacturers to work together while lacking suitable amounts of funding.
Most Vietnamese researchers and manufacturers are unable to arrange sufficient project and testing capital, often dealing with potential investors who are unwilling to apply their R&D results.
In the long run, scientists and manufacturers joining hands in having high quality machines made in Viet Nam is a very good idea although investors do face some risks in using these at prices perhaps not much cheaper than foreign made products.
With experience gained, however, there is no doubt that local scientists and manufacturers will eventually be able to improve their products and lower costs.
Do you think these conflicts will be resolved and how so?
I'm confident that these conflicts can be resolved. Yet, one thing I would like to stress is that these types of conflicts happen in developing countries only, where research organis-ations and institutes work independently from project owner activities.
In developed countries, almost all major corporations have their own R&D departments servicing their business development needs.
In Viet Nam, the Government needs to define market demand related to each industry based on the nation's socio-economic development programme, assigning R&D missions to research institutes and importing new technologies to help ensure development strategies are achieved.
In this way, R&D results could be successfully applied to a chain of projects and improve technology for the production of high quality products at competitive prices.
In the case of Vietnamese hydro power plants, before 2004, companies had to import around 100 per cent of all hydraulic engineering machines and equipment.
By 2005, as the demand for hydro power plant development rose, the Government foresaw the possibility of manufacturing hydraulic engineering equipment domestically with the right technologies and foreign support.
As a result, the Ministry of Commerce (the present day Ministry of Industry and Trade) called on the Institute of Mechanical Engineering to create the necessary conditions for technology design and manufacturing. The Institute has worked closely with manufacturers in producing high quality hydraulic machines and equipment for more than 30 domestic hydro power plants, including those at northern Son La and Lai Chau procinces, at competitive prices.
VNS
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