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In November 1945, just over two months after the birth of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, President Ho Chi Minh directly attended and presided over the first opening ceremony of an independent Vietnamese university at Vietnam National University - the predecessor of todays Hanoi National University. Download General Secretary and President To Lam and delegates visit an exhibition of scientific and technological achievements of Hanoi National University (Photo: VNU) In a situation where the country is still full of hungry enemies, ignorant enemies and foreign invaders, that presence represents a very early strategic vision of the revolution and Leader Ho Chi Minh: to maintain independence and build the nation, we must open up the peoples knowledge, revive intellectuals and build a new university. for the nation to enter a new era. Eighty years later, at the same iconic university space, General Secretary and President To Lam sent a message of special significance about the role of universities, science, technology and intellectuals in the countrys new future development. If in 1945, Vietnam National University was associated with the desire to build an independent and free country, today, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, is being placed at the center of the desire to make Vietnam a developed country with knowledge, science, technology and innovation, a country that is increasingly stronger and more prosperous, with happier and more prosperous people. Download General Secretary and President To Lam and other leaders, former State Party leaders and delegates attending the 120th Anniversary of Hanoi National Universitys Tradition Day. When universities are placed at the center of the national development strategy, if you read carefully the speech of General Secretary and President at the 120th Anniversary of Hanoi National Universitys Traditions Day, you can see a very notable change in development thinking: universities are no longer seen as primarily as an educational institution, but is being placed in the position of a national strategic infrastructure. This is clearly shown in the way the General Secretary and President talk about the role of Hanoi National University. He did not only emphasize the task of training high-quality human resources or improving academic rankings. He set the university responsibilities directly linked to the countrys future of competition and development: pioneering in artificial intelligence, semiconductors, biotechnology, new materials, big data, green technology and innovation. This is not simply a list of priority technology industries. That is the map of global competition in the 21st century. Today, the gap between countries is no longer determined primarily by natural resources or cheap labor. In the knowledge economy, development advantages increasingly depend on the ability to create new knowledge, master core technologies and transform knowledge into national competitiveness. Download Students at the University of Natural Sciences (Hanoi National University) practice research at the laboratory. Any country that masters AI will have an advantage in productivity, governance and national defense. Any country that masters semiconductors will hold an important position in the global technology value chain. The country that leads in data and innovation will lead in long-term development capacity. Therefore, when General Secretary and President To Lam asked Hanoi National University to become an elite university, aiming at the group of leading universities in Asia and the world, it did not just mean academics or reputation. It reflects a strategic awareness that: to climb the ladder of development, Vietnam must build intellectual centers capable of participating in the global competition in science, technology and innovation. This is a very thoughtful point. For a long time, we often looked at university mainly as a place to train human resources. But this speech shows a much broader approach. Universities do not just train workers for the economy. Universities must also become the birthplace of new technology, new thinking, new development models and new competitiveness for the country. In other words, universities must be at the center of the development strategy. That is the thinking of countries that want to move from a growth model based on resource exploitation to a development model based on knowledge and innovation. Looking at the world, there is almost no technological power that is not also a university power. America has MIT and Stanford University as the academic foundations of the technology and innovation ecosystem. China makes strategic investments in Tsinghua University and Peking University to serve national technology ambitions. Singapore places the National University of Singapore at the center of its knowledge-based development model. South Korea built the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology as an intellectual engine for its high-tech industrialization strategy. Behind those models is a very clear development logic: any country that wants to be a leader in technology must first be a leader in universities and science.For Vietnam, if in the 20th century, the nations biggest goal was to gain independence and unify the country, then in the 21st century, the biggest challenge is probably to upgrade the countrys development position in a world of competition with knowledge and technology. And perhaps that is why this time, like 80 years ago, the message about the nations future is sent from the university space - the convergence of knowledge, talent and the countrys development aspirations. Download Students of Hanoi National University in the research room A new vision on the role of intellectuals and universities. The speech of General Secretary and President To Lam not only puts higher education at the center of the national development strategy, but also reflects a new vision of the role of intellectuals in the 21st
