Dr. Nguyen Chanh Khe, Director of the R&D Centre in the HCM City Hi-tech Park, is spearheading efforts to develop the Vietnamese nano tube industry.

Dr. Nguyen Chanh Khe

The following is taken from an interview with Tien Phong

Q. Why did you decide to return home while your future in the US was very bright, with many attractive invitations?

A. Before returning home (September 2002), I had visited the country many times. The first time was in December 1982 to work at the Vietnam Science and Technology Institute in Nghia Do, Hanoi.

That was also the first time I visited my native land, Hanoi, because I was born, grew up in the southern region when the country was separated, and then I went overseas to study. In my heart, Hanoi always has a special position though I was not born there.

My love for the country and my dream of returning home to live and taste the country’s gifts, not to mention what I wanted to do for the country, were the most powerful motivational factors, stronger than any invitation.

Q. How have you turned your dreams into reality since you came back home?

A. The most important and meaningful thing in my career life at home is turning Vietnamese natural resources into nano technology products, from coconut fibre in Ben Tre, do bau tres in Quang Nam, coffee in Dak Lak, bamboo, etc.

Vietnam’s carbon nano tubes have caught the eyes of multinational groups like Hitachi, Good Year, AR Brown and promise potential to liberate Vietnam’s countryside from less lucrative traditional markets.

Briefly, Vietnamese agricultural products have been applied in one of the most modern applications of the age, such as used to make the fuselages of spacecrafts and aircrafts, digital printing ink, medicines and biological products, which the world hadn’t yet thought of a few years ago.

I want to use Vietnam’s natural resources in the latest applications of the world’s highest technology and I’m reaching my initial wishes.

Q. What are the hindrances for your job?

A. There are many hindrances for realising these dreams. The first is my colleagues and co-workers, who are young engineers from local universities, lack experience and creativeness to come up with breakthrough answers. They are not capable enough to express their independence.

The State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese is collecting comments for its draft policy to attract Viet Kieu experts. If they ask for your comment, what will you say?

Let leading overseas Vietnamese experts who return home to work as scientific managers be independent.

VietNamNet/TP