US willing to help Vietnam’s Danang city join semiconductor supply chain

The U.S. is willing to help Vietnam in general and the central city of Danang in particular to develop its semiconductor sector and further integrate into the global supply chain, said U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Marc Knapper.

The ambassador made the statement at a meeting last Saturday with Danang authorities, while lauding the city’s preparation for their cooperation, especially collaboration among training facilities. The U.S. is looking for authority-authority, business-business, and university-university cooperation in the semiconductor sector, which could help attract American businesses to invest and expand their activities in Vietnam, he added.

To establish a semiconductor ecosystem and attract investments, Danang should focus on developing and training its workforce, building infrastructure, and improving access to renewable energy, the diplomat emphasized.

For his part, Danang Vice Chairman Ho Ky Minh urged the diplomat to help the city connect with U.S. semiconductor businesses, focusing on assembling, testing, and packaging (ATP).

Danang launched a research & development center for chip design and artificial intelligence (AI) in December 2023 in a move to facilitate international cooperation in the sector, Minh highlighted.

At the meeting, representatives of universities in Danang also expressed their willingness to cooperate with U.S. partners on semiconductor courses in order to fulfill the city’s goal of training 10,000 staff for the sector by 2030.

In November 2023, Synopsys, a leading chip business based in California, and the authorities of Vietnam’s central city of Danang, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on workforce training for the semiconductor industry. The agreement was signed in San Francisco, on the sidelines of Vietnamese President Vo Van Thuong’s working trip to the U.S. to attend the APEC 2023 summit.

According to the MoU, Synopsis will support Danang IC Design Incubation Center, particularly in connecting engineers trained at the center with job opportunities at domestic and foreign semiconductor businesses. The cooperation is part of Danang’s efforts to reform its economic model, with a focus on high-technology, information technology, innovation, smart city, digital economy, and digital governance