Summaries Since the 1970s, Vietnam has been moving from a centrally planned to an open economy on a step‐by‐step basis. A premium is now being accorded by national policymakers to a new national science and technology (S&T) policy to serve as the driving force for Vietnam's economic development. This paper examines briefly the current case for and against national S&T policy It looks at some of the principal factors inherent in both globalisation and technological change and suggests some possible implications of this for Vietnamese S&T policy, including the role of government. That role would be far removed from the step‐by‐step and tightly managed arrangements that have guided the Vietnamese development effort over the past two decades.