Over recent years, the Da Nang Science and Technology Development Fund has focused on giving financial aid to local scientific and technological projects, thereby helping local businesses bolster their operation.

Ms Hong is happy with her brainchild: dishwashing liquid

Last year, a total of 210 million VND from the Fund was granted to 3 local scientific and technological projects.  Of this, 100 million VND was given to a start-up project entitled ‘Minh Hong’ which specialises in producing cleaning fluid from biological products, whilst 40 million VND was for the creation of a welding inspection robot.  The remainder went to a project for creating a dustbin cleaning machine.

The ‘Minh Hong’ project was initially developed by Ms Trinh Thi Hong from Lien Chieu District’s Hoa Minh Ward who has a strong passion for producing cleaning fluid from biological products.  Ms Hong said that, several years ago, she attended an international conference in the Philippines on developing poor urban communities in the Pacific region.  At the event, she showed great interest in the microbial organic products on display there.  After coming back to Da Nang, Ms Hong tried to produce dishwashing liquid from raw vegetables and withered flowers, and finally gained sucess with her product.

Ms Hong said that, in the early days of operation, her own company faced numerous difficulties, specially a severe shortage of capital.  Fortunately, she was very happy to receive timely financial aid from the Fund to build manufacturing facilities and purchase extra equipment in a bid to promote her production activities.

Every month, Ms Hong’ company earns between 20 and 21 million VND in profits, and creates part-time jobs for about 90 poor local women.

The strong-willed woman hoped that more local businesses would access such financial assistance from the Fund in the years ahead.

Moreover, the project for designing and producing a welding inspection robot was developed by a group of engineers from the Centre of Electrical Engineering of the city-based Duy Tan University in 2016.

The robot which automatically looks for weld defects in ship hulls has already been registered for intellectual property rights.  This project has been highly appreciated for its applicability and its usefulness in supporting industrial activities, especially shipbuilding activities. 

The fully-assembled robot can automatically hang on to a ship hull and move around to follow welds at any position.  It is equipped with positional ultrasonic detectors and cameras to automatically take pictures at the locations where it makes detections.

The financial aid from the Fund for the project indeed inspires the robot's creators to make even greater efforts to perfect their product, and to promote the spirit of creativity in their research activities. 

Another project, the automatic dustbin cleaning machine, was successfully created by the Central Industrial Machinery and Equipment Production JSC (CIMEC) which is headquartered in Hoa Vang District. 

The creation of such a useful machine helps the city develop new technological products in the future years.

Since the start of this year, the municipal Department of Science and Technology has given the go-ahead for 2 local businesses to receive a total of 175 million VND in aid from the Fund to promote their production activities.  The beneficiaries are the Da Nang Cellular Lightweight Concrete JSC and the Ngu Hanh Son Cement JSC.

Many local businesspeople highlighted the importance of promoting the efficiency of the Fund in the coming years, with a focus on granting more financial assistance to projects involved many local aspects, especially hi-tech ones.