Last year, Son La stepped up sci-tech research in all fields and its outcomes were widely applied in production and life. The province carried out a total of 41 sci-tech research tasks relating to different spheres. Noteworthy examples in agriculture include the sci-tech application in developing plant varieties and intensive Caribbean pine plantation in Son La province; the research and building of an organic farming model for Ha Den grape, a drought-resistant variety; the research to evaluate the growth and development ability of F1 between BBB and Sind crossbred cows; and the application of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) integrated with 4.0 technology to monitor the growth and health of some agricultural crops like mango and longan.

A number of studies on socio-economic affairs and humanities have been done, including one on market and logistics research to boost Son La’s fruit exports to some European countries, one on IT application to build a management model for urban drainage and wastewater treatment system in Son La city, and another on the utilisation of virtual reality technology to build a tourism model at the Son La Prison special national relic site, thus contributing to the development of industries and sectors in the province.

In the year, the provincial Department of Science and Technology coordinated with Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam at the Ministry of Science and Technology to carry out the national tasks of protection registration, utilise intellectual property rights to serve the management and development of product and service trademarks in the Da River area in Son La province, and announce the mark protection certification for "Phu Yen Rice".

It also partnered the Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences to effectively implement the experimental growing models and perfect farming methods for Mau Don black seedless grape in net houses, tomatoes, bell peppers, and celery; and complete the process of breeding Kim Tuyen orchid using in-vitro techniques at the Moc Chau area for the research, application and transfer of scientific and technological advances in agriculture and forestry.

This year, the Department of Science and Technology will further provide consultations for the province in the issuance of documents and policies to support organisations and individuals in technological innovation, and hand over the results of accepted scientific and technological tasks to other departments, agencies, units, the People's Committees of districts and Son La city for application and replication.

At the same time, it will improve the operational quality of advisory councils in scientific research, while directing sci-tech research and application to closely follow the province's tasks, effectively contributing to spurring rapid and sustainable socio-economic development in the locality.