Vietnam's Policy on Supporting Enterprises in Technology Mastering in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Supporting enterprises to master technology plays an important role in enhancing endogenous technological capacity of enterprises and promoting economic development based on science, technology and innovation. In Vietnam, the Government has paid attention and put priorities on supporting enterprises to improve their technological mastery. However, the technological level of Vietnamese enterprises is still low, negatively affecting the position and competitiveness of enterprises as well as economic development of the country. Based on assessment of the current status of technology mastering support policies, this paper proposes policy recommendations on improving technology mastery of enterprises in accordance with Vietnam's conditions in the context of the fourth industrial revolution. The research conducted a survey to investigate enterprises most of whom are in the mechanical industry to collect information on the current situation of enterprises’ technology and their benefits from supporting policies on enterprises’ technology mastery. Questionnaires were sent to 132 enterprises with 89 responses. Based on survey results, the authors suggest that the Vietnamese Government should create favorable conditions for enterprises to set up a research and development department in order to accelerate the process of research, improvement, decoding, mastering and innovation of technologies; support businesses in seeking technological information, improving the procedures of credit incentives for businesses in technology innovation and transfer, improving the capacity of human resources to master and apply scientific and technological advances; and create a more favorable legal corridor to accelerate the process of applying technologies of the fourth industrial revolution into production and business.