ABSTRACT
Vietnam has experienced improved economic development during the past five years or so. The economy has been opening up very rapidly, and investors in industrialized countries are building a large number of high-technology enterprises, both foreign-owned and joint ventures. The difficulty is that the price for this equipment is very high; it is much too expensive for people. So it is up to the research scientists to develop a system that can be built in Vietnam, making use of local resources. The development of the country requires the construction of many buildings, especially educational and health-care facilities in rural areas. Very good composite materials for building have been developed in the United States (US) using polymers plus glass fibres. Glass fibres are expensive in Vietnam, but people do have plenty of inexpensive bamboo fibres. To solve practical problems of development, developing countries must have the capacity to carry out relevant research in the basic sciences.
