Vietnam’s bid to exploit US-China chip tensions confronts labour hurdles
Al Jazeera
Hanoi is hoping to benefit from the push to de-risk from China amid intensifying geopolitical tensions.
Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam – On a sunny California afternoon in late September, Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh took a tour of Silicon Valley, cosying up to officials at semiconductor firms Synopsys and Nvidia.
A little over a month earlier in Hanoi, Pham tasked four government ministries with increasing the number of Vietnamese engineers capable of working in semiconductor production by the tens of thousands.
Government efforts to make Vietnam an attractive option for chip investment have continued in the new year.
Minister of Science and Technology Huynh Thanh Dat last month told local media that authorities had put tax incentives in place for high-value-added products such as semiconductors.
Dat said the country wanted to welcome a “wave” of investment by collaborating with other ministries and tech corporations to boost research and draw talent to the semiconductor sector.
