Photo for illustration (Source: dantri.com.vn)
Nowadays, the number of overseas Vietnamese intellectuals in the fields of science, technology, education and training around the world is very large, especially young people, but each year only several hundred people return the homeland to set up projects or work.
The figure is too small compared to the potential of overseas Vietnamese. To attract and encourage a larger number of overseas Vietnamese intellectuals to return to Vietnam to contribute their knowledge and experiences to build the country, the government should implement effective communication and mobilization.
For overseas Vietnamese intellectuals, profits aren’t the main reason for them to return to the homeland to work. The thing they need is to be respected, supported and create favorable conditions for them to work. This requires a increasing awareness of the importance of attracting overseas Vietnamese intellectuals for economic development of the country, as well as renew ways to attract them.
On that basis, a system of mechanisms, policies and laws must be built in the direction of equal treatment, not distinguishing between overseas Vietnamese and domestic intellectuals in all aspects, to create favourable conditions to mobilize potentials of overseas Vietnamese intellectuals.
In addition, we must take advantage of international bridge role of overseas Vietnamese intellectuals to introduce projects, look for investors in the field of high technology or scientific research; introduce training and research facilities which have financial capacity to support specialist training in Vietnam; and help students, graduate students and scientists to study and research abroad.
Moreover, brokerage, technology transferring centres and innovative projects with direct or indirect involvement of overseas Vietnamese intellectuals to attract investment or export brainchild products as well as a network of scientific and technology experts among overseas Vietnamese should be established.
The network should have at least four basic elements: identifying areas of science and technology prioritized to attract experts; giving criteria for scientific experts to be attracted in every field of science and technology; building a plan which defines the number of experts needed in each field and at each stage of development; and building a mechanism to link scientific and technology experts./.