Saigon Hi-Tech Park establishes chip design center

Saigon Hi-Tech Park (SHTP) in Ho Chi Minh City debuted Friday a chip design center to cash in on demand for semiconductors.

The center, including a chip design lab, is a key step in developing a semiconductor industry in the country in the coming time, the SHTP management board said.

The lab is the first important infrastructure of the center and a move to implement the agreement signed in late August between the SHTP and Synopsys, a major American chip software firm.

In particular, Synopsys will provide software licenses to academies and schools, conduct training courses in chip design for lecturers, and hold high-level training courses on chip design.

The center marks a new phase of the SHTP's development, a phase focusing on building breakthrough high-tech industries with spillover effects, according to the board.

The park would continue investing in the center's infrastructure to supply practical services, contributing to the development of foundations for a semiconductor industry in Vietnam, it added.

Nguyen Anh Thi, head of the SHTP, said the center is now home to two semiconductor players, namely Microchip Technology (Vietnam) and SNST & Finger Vina Co., Ltd.

As the high-tech park is attracting investments from the world's major chip producers, HCMC should invest more in training, Thi noted.

Previously, Robert Li, vice president of sales in Taiwan, South East Asia, and India at Synopsys, said the biggest challenge of the global chip industry is the lack of human resources, while Vietnam has strength in that aspect and lower costs compared with other regional countries like Singapore and Malaysia.

Throughout 20 years, the SHTP has granted investment certificates to 163 projects worth over $12 billion, including $10.1 billion of foreign investment and $1.96 billion of domestic investment.

Exports of high-tech products this year is expected to account for nearly 52% of HCMC’s export revenues, at about $23 billion.

Vietnam is attracting attention among foreign companies as a destination for producing chip components amid a global shortage of this critical part in automobile and electronics manufacturing.

Sein I&D Vietnam plans to build a microchip factory in Hanoi, CEO Kim Jung In told Hanoi Chairman Tran Sy Thanh on September 13. South Korean giant Samsung Electronics is preparing for the trial production of a flip-chip ball grid array in Vietnam, with commercial production slated to begin next July at its factory in Thai Nguyen province.

U.S.-based Amkor Technology Inc., a global semiconductor product packaging and test services provider, said it was investing as much as $1.6 billion until 2035 to build a state-of-the-art facility in Bac Ninh province.

In a meeting with Oh Hyung Kwon in late August, Qualcomm senior vice president and president of Asia-Pacific, Vietnam's Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Pham Duc Long said Vietnam was willing to create the best conditions for U.S. wireless technology giant Qualcomm to build chip research, development and testing facilities in the country.

Military-run Viettel, Vietnam's biggest telecom group, is seeking the prime ministerial okay to make chips for domestic and overseas markets.