Viet Nam has put aside more than VND17 trillion (US$792 million) for science and technology in 2015, the Ministry of Science and Technology said at a conference in Ha Noi this week.

This fund, already approved by the Prime Minister and the National Assembly, is higher in both absolute value and percentage, when calculated in the total spending of the nation, than that of recent years, the ministry said on Tuesday.

Hoang Minh Thuc, a departmental chief from the ministry, said that current regulations require annual investment in science and technology to occupy two percent of Viet Nam’s budget spending, but in reality it has never reached that level, causing difficulties in allocating funds for research.

Speaking at the conference, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam was supportive of earmarking two percent of the state budget for science and technology and emphasized the importance of how to use the funding.

Scientific researches have been created and submitted mainly by research institutes and researchers. This mode could be still useful but we need to focus on problems that daily life needs science to solve,” Deputy Prime Minister Dam said. “Local science and technology departments play a very important role in finding out these problems and place ‘orders’ with researchers.”