Asian Science Parks Association holds annual conference in Vietnam

The 16th Annual Conference of the Asian Science Parks Association (ASPA) kicked off in Vietnam's southern Ho Chi Minh (HCM) City on Thursday, attracting top leaders, scientists and managers of science parks, research institutes and universities from 20 countries and territories. Participants to the conference, themed "Science Parks towards Green Economy", focused on the role of science parks towards their sustainable and environmental, friendly development. Addressing the opening ceremony, Vietnamese Minister of Science and Technology (MST) Nguyen Quan said that Vietnam is now in the path to global integration, so it is looking towards building an advanced science and technology industry, especially high technology. ASPA's 16th conference is an opportunity for Vietnamese managers, scientists, companies and businessmen in the field to interact with their international partners, share with one another experience and promote high-tech development and knowledge, Quan said. The Vietnamese government set a target that by 2020 the value of high-tech products and their application will account for 40 percent of the country's total industrial output value, contributing to building Vietnam into a modern, industrialized country, said the Vietnamese official, adding that Vietnam will take this opportunity to learn from regional and international successful science parks for their contribution to economic development in their respective countries as well as to Asia and the world, so as to apply them to the national high-tech parks. ASPA President Yong Hyun Lee confirmed that the 16th annual conference hosted by the Saigon High-Tech Park proved the rapid development of this newly emerging high-tech park in Asia. At present, software high-tech parks, which focus on information and knowledge, are more popular than the hardware ones, which are mainly for land rent. So, in the near future, the model of software parks based on science and technology should be built so as they can combine the function of science and technology with business, said the ASPA official. During the two-day conference, participants joined in discussions on eight topics, including international cooperation among high-tech parks, role of governments in managing and supporting development of high-tech parks, developing high-tech parks towards development of green economy for localities and countries, and high-tech business incubation to enhance economic growth with green Gross Domestic Product (GDP), among others. About 30 speeches are expected to deliver during the sessions. As sidelines events, participants would participate in the opening ceremony of the Hi-Tech Products Exhibition 2012 in HCM City on Thursday, where latest high-tech products are displayed by nearly 100 domestic and foreign companies. They also made tours to the Saigon High-Tech Park and the FPT Software Ho Chi Minh City, one of the leading IT companies operating in the Park. ASPA is a non-governmental organization established in 1997 in Japan, with the purpose to enhance science and technology, industrial and economic development in Asian countries. To date, ASPA has 108 members, including Vietnam's Saigon High-Tech Park in HCM City, and Hoa Lac High-Tech Park in capital Hanoi.