According to the Director of the HCM City Department of Science and Technology, Phan Minh Tan, the fund was not spent wholly because there weren’t good enough projects for investment.

Tan said he will ask the local government’s permission to invest the fund in not only the city’s agencies in the city but central agencies located in HCM City.

The city aims to raise the budget for science and technology to 4% of total budget spending by 2012 and 6% by 2015.

The city will also work out a system of policies and systems to call for investment from society into sci-tech. Accordingly, by 2012, social investment in this field will account for 40%, and 60% by 2015.

V. Giang