Vietnamese leader To Lam called for clearer routes from overseas expertise to practical projects during a meeting in Brussels with Vietnamese experts and intellectuals in Belgium and Luxembourg on October 24, according to VOV. The meeting took place during his official visit to Belgium. Nguyen Huong Tra, Vietnam’s ambassador to Belgium and head of its mission to the European Union, outlined the work of Vietnamese researchers and professionals in Belgium, Luxembourg and neighbouring countries, including France, the Netherlands and Austria. Participants proposed initiatives spanning artificial intelligence, nuclear energy, semiconductors, green materials and agricultural biotechnology. Their recommendations included developing Vietnam into a leading Asian hub for AI services, strengthening critical infrastructure resilience and building a circular industrial model connecting rice straw with green steel. Quantum technology, laser satellite communications and space connectivity were also discussed. To Lam welcomed the proposals, saying the experts had identified both national needs and specific contributions they were prepared to make. But he also acknowledged that Vietnam had struggled to turn such recommendations into results. According to VOV, he said some overseas experts’ proposals had been recorded at forums and then left without an organisation responsible for receiving or answering them. Others had returned to Vietnam with ideas but stopped their initiatives because of administrative procedures and financial mechanisms. He placed primary responsibility for those obstacles on the state apparatus. His proposed response was to begin with concrete national problems. Ministries, agencies, local authorities and businesses should specify the problems they need solved, the technologies they lack, who will receive the work and what the final product should be. He urged the selection of a limited number of feasible projects involving domestic partners. Each should have clear objectives, deadlines and named leaders, with completion judged through functioning products, verifiable data, actual users and measurable efficiency. For experts based abroad, including those in Luxembourg, he advocated arrangements that would allow contributions without permanent relocation. These included project contracts, remote work, joint research, clearer intellectual property rights and funding linked to final deliverables. He also called for acceptance of research risks and delays. The longer-term test, he said, should be the capacity each partnership builds inside Vietnam: trained engineers and scientists, laboratories, research groups and technology businesses. Cooperation should move beyond transferring technology towards developing it together.
