Japanese companies should be 'early-bird investors' in Vietnam’s semiconductor industry

Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Chi Dung has urged Japanese companies, particularly Kioxia Corporation, to take advantage of current opportunities and invest early in Vietnam’s emerging semiconductor industry.

Dung made the statement during his visit to Kioxia Corporation in Mie Prefecture on Tuesday, the third day of his trip to Japan for the 30th Future of Asia Conference.

Founded in 2018, Kioxia (formerly Toshiba Memory Corporation) is a leading Japanese memory manufacturer with a market capitalization of approximately $8.1 billion.

The company focuses on developing and producing flash memory (NAND) and solid-state drives (SSDs) for applications in cloud computing, smartphones, supercomputers, and automobiles.

So far, Kioxia has employed 50 Vietnamese workers, including nine currently working at its Mie-based facility and three engineers at its research center.

Company executives noted that Vietnamese employees are highly skilled, hard-working, responsible, and capable of holding the same positions as Japanese engineers.

After hearing from Kioxia’s executive vice president Wantanbe Tomoharu, Dung praised the company’s achievements and emphasized the growing importance of data storage technology. He noted that Kioxia’s role will become increasingly critical in shaping global digital infrastructure.

He also expressed appreciation for Kioxia’s treatment of Vietnamese employees and their contributions to both the company and Japan’s economy.

The Deputy Prime Minister proposed several ways to deepen cooperation, including creating a database to connect current and former Vietnamese employees of Kioxia, supporting skilled Vietnamese engineers interested in entrepreneurship and contributing to the semiconductor supply chain, and launching training and internship programs for Vietnamese students.

Vietnam, he said, has already developed a semiconductor industry development strategy and established a national steering committee for semiconductor development, chaired by the Prime Minister.

The country is implementing a comprehensive set of initiatives, including establishing the Investment Support Fund, launching a national program to train 50,000 semiconductor engineers, attracting FDI, and promoting public-private and private-private partnerships across the semiconductor industry value chain.

The Deputy Prime Minister encouraged both sides to expand cooperation by opening large-scale, high-quality training centers, developing data centers and R&D hubs, and working with the Hanoi People’s Committee to sign an MoU for a project to produce AI chips at the Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park.

“Vietnam has everything it takes to develop a thriving semiconductor industry. Choosing Vietnam is absolutely the right decision for Kioxia”, added Dung.

In response, Wantanbe Tomoharu said that Kioxia would seriously consider the Deputy Prime Minister’s recommendations. The company plans to explore increasing its recruitment of Vietnamese engineers, participate in training Vietnam’s semiconductor workforce, and strengthen partnerships with Vietnamese government agencies and companies.