Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc requested the ministries of planning and investment, science and technology and industry and trade to study the high-tech centre in Thailand. — Photo baodautu.vn

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam is under pressure to keep up with Thailand after they opened the largest high-tech centre in Southeast Asia.

Việt Nam has just approved building the Việt Nam National Innovation Centre (NIC), but the country needs to build and promote it to keep up with their neighbours.

Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc requested the ministries of planning and investment, science and technology and industry and trade to study the high-tech centre in Thailand.

True Digital Park is invested by Charoen Pokphand (CP) Group, with an area of ​​more than 200,000 square metres.

With the support of the Thai Government, True Digital Park has attracted 4,500 technology employees so far and a second phase of the project is in the pipeline which will open in two years.

The Việt Nam National Innovation Centre will be built following a decision signed at the beginning of this month by Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc.

The centre, covering about 23ha in Hòa Lạc Hi-tech Park, will be a public non-business unit under the management of the Planning and Investment Ministry.

It is being established to support and develop the national start-ups and innovation ecosystems, contributing to the growth models based on science and technology.

If the plan goes well, it will not be until the end of this year that construction of NIC can begin with opening planned for the end of next year.

Many experts said if Việt Nam wanted to catch up with the fourth industrial revolution, the country needed to build the NIC quickly.

Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc emphasised the goal of making NIC become the cradle of startups.

Previously, there were many opinions concerning competitive pressure from other centres around the world, especially in the region such as Singapore or South Korea.

A newly-opened centre in Thailand will make the race to attract investors and businesses in the field of technology become more intense.

Contribution of business community needed

Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyễn Chí Dũng said although NIC was the national innovation centre, the investment would come from the private sector also.

Similarly, the management and operation of the NIC would be assigned to the private sector to ensure efficiency. Therefore, the "contribution" of the business community and investors both at home and abroad were very important, he said.

Recently, South Korean SK Group announced non-refundable aid for the Ministry of Planning and Investment to develop the National Innovation Centre (NIC).

The total capital needed in infrastructure is estimated at more than $70 million. The rest will be sought from domestic and foreign investors.

"A lot of businesses are interested in the building of NIC," said Minister Nguyễn Chí Dũng.

The minister also visited Singapore and Germany to call for investment for NIC in the past time.

However, building infrastructure is not all. It is important to call on large corporations, technology enterprises as well as creative start-up community to invest and set up offices at NIC.

In order to do this, the Ministry of Planning and Investment has proposed many institutions and policies to attract not only investors but also talents. — VNS