Vietnam seeks US investment in semiconductor industry

The U.S. Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) should call on businesses to expand their investments in Vietnam, Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai said to SIA president and CEO John Neuffer on Thursday.

At their meeting in Hanoi, the Deputy PM said the SIA executive’s Vietnam visit as part of a Southeast Asia survey held importance. "It is also the start of cooperation between the Vietnamese government and SIA, pushing Vietnam’s participation in the global semiconductor supply chain," Khai added.

The official emphasized Vietnam’s preferential policies for high-tech industries, particularly the semiconductor sector. High-tech businesses are subject to low corporate income tax (CIT) of 5% in 37 years, tax exemption in six years, and 50% tax reduction in the next 13 years. They can also enjoy an exemption of land and water surface lease fees for 22 years and 75% reduction for the remaining period, Khai noted.

Vietnam has already established high-tech parks in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and the central city of Danang, three of the country's economic hubs, in a move to facilitate research and development, high-tech incubation, investment attraction, and human resource training, the deputy prime minister added.

Khai noted that Vietnam, with its high-quality workforce, has already attracted top players like Intel, Samsung, Foxconn, Amkor, and LG.

Neuffer said U.S. businesses are re-building to re-stabilize the global semiconductor supply chain, including further utilization of “friendly countries.” He hopes Vietnam with its resources would play a more and more important role in the U.S.’s global semiconductor supply chain.

Neuffer said he expected U.S. top semiconductor producers would set up headquarters and recruit staff in Vietnam.

Vietnam has been attracting foreign investments in chip design and production. At the inauguration of Samsung's $220-million research and development center in Hanoi on December 23 last year, PM Pham Minh Chinh urged the electronics giant to start producing chips in Vietnam from July 2023.

In October 2022, Saigon Hi-Tech Park (SHTP) in HCMC debuted a chip design center to cash in on demand for semiconductors. The center, including a chip design lab, is a key step in developing the semiconductor industry in the country, the SHTP management board said.

In August 2022, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Pham Duc Long told Oh Hyung Kwon, Qualcomm senior vice president and president of Asia-Pacific, that Vietnam was willing to create the best conditions for the U.S. wireless technology giant to build chip research, development and testing facilities in the country.

U.S.-based Amkor Technology Inc., a global semiconductor product packaging and test services provider, is investing as much as $1.6 billion until 2035 to build a state-of-the-art facility in Bac Ninh province, northern Vietnam, as an important part of the American corporation’s worldwide network.

Intel has received an investment certificate for $1.2 billion to manufacture chips in HCMC. The HCMC unit is Intel’s third chip factory in the world, besides those in Scotland and Israel, and is set to supply 20% of the global demand for chips, according to Vietnam’s Association of Foreign Invested Enterprises (VAFIE) chairman Prof. Nguyen Mai.