Continuing the 44th Session, on the morning of April 15, at the National Assembly House, the National Assembly Standing Committee gave opinions on the draft Law on Science, Technology and Innovation.

Presenting the Draft Law, Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Manh Hung said that the Draft Law on Science, Technology and Innovation consists of 8 chapters and 95 articles, an increase of 14 articles compared to the 2013 Law on Science and Technology due to the addition of innovation content and restructuring of the Law, so in terms of form there are many changes compared to the current law.

The Draft Law has major amendments to 26 articles and adds 23 articles.

According to Minister Nguyen Manh Hung, for the first time, innovation is included and placed on par with science and technology.

The draft Law supplements support mechanisms for innovation activities, especially in enterprises; promotes the development of innovation support organizations, start-ups, and venture capital funds.

Regarding promoting research, development and innovation activities in enterprises, the Draft Law has many policies related to science, technology and innovation activities in enterprises with more allocations for its Science, Technology and Innovation Development Fund, which is spent on investment activities in science, technology and innovation, including creative start-up projects and creative start-up enterprises.

Expenditures outside the Enterprise Fund for research, development and innovation are counted as 150% of the cost to deduct when calculating corporate income tax and are especially counted as 200% of the cost to deduct when calculating corporate income tax when such expenditures directly serve the development of strategic technologies.

In the Preliminary Review Report of the Law Project, Chairman of the Committee for Science, Technology and Environment Le Quang Huy basically agreed with the scope of regulation of the draft Law, but there were opinions that the scope of regulation and the entire content of the draft Law "still have a heavy administrative mindset", managing scientific, technological and innovation activities in the use of the state budget without really highlighting mechanisms and policies strong enough to encourage and promote enterprises, organizations and individuals to invest in and apply science, technology and innovation in production and business.

Some people believe that the scope of the Law has not clearly demonstrated the role of science, technology and innovation as the main driving force to promote socio-economic development, bringing the country to breakthrough development and prosperity in the new era, said Mr. Le Quang Huy.

Discussing at the meeting, the majority of members of the National Assembly Standing Committee agreed to develop and promulgate the Law on Science, Technology and Innovation.

The draft Law has demonstrated the spirit of innovation, closely following the Party's policy, according to Resolution No. 57-NQ/TW of the Politburo on breakthroughs in science and technology development, innovation and national digital transformation.

Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly Nguyen Thi Thanh suggested that it is necessary to consider inheriting the regulations in Resolution No. 193/2025/QH15 of the National Assembly on piloting a number of special mechanisms and policies to create breakthroughs in science, technology, innovation and national digital transformation development because there has not been much time to evaluate, test and evaluate the effectiveness of inherited regulations.

Therefore, it is necessary to review and carefully evaluate the necessity and maturity of each content to have a basis for inclusion in the Law, ensuring the feasibility and stability of the Law; other contents that do not meet the conditions should continue to be piloted to ensure caution and strictness.

Regarding the name of the draft Law, National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man suggested that it could be amended to the Law on Science and Technology (amended) and the content of innovation would be included in the Law.

“In my opinion, the revised Law on Science and Technology has the content of innovation. You can build a separate chapter on innovation to clarify that issue,” the National Assembly Chairman emphasized.

The National Assembly Chairman also said that the draft Law should avoid adding too much content. “Don’t add too much, fix what we need, what society needs now, what scientists need now. Fix it so that it can be implemented immediately,” the National Assembly Chairman noted and stated that with the remaining issues, the National Assembly Standing Committee is “ready to sit down with the Government to resolve them.”

Regarding preferential, outstanding and specific policies, the National Assembly Standing Committee found that the draft Law has institutionalized the content of reforming the financial management mechanism in implementing scientific, technological, innovation and digital transformation tasks; the budget for research and development of science and technology is prioritized to be implemented according to the fund mechanism, through science and technology development funds...

Regarding this content, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Vu Hong Thanh expressed concern about whether the draft Law's provision of up to 6 funds is too much or not.

According to the Vice Chairman of the National Assembly, it is possible to pool together a number of necessary funds to ensure that the funds are effective in promoting the development of science, technology and innovation.

Concluding the discussion, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Le Minh Hoan requested the examining agency and the drafting agency to fully absorb the opinions of the National Assembly Standing Committee, prepare more carefully, clarify and convince new and important points to complete the draft Law before submitting it to the National Assembly for consideration and comments./.

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/du-thao-luat-khoa-hoc-cong-nghe-phai-neu-nhung-gi-nha-khoa-hoc-xa-hoi-can-post1027860.vnp