A large number of foreign investors have applied for the development of hi-tech projects in Vietnam, with many mammoth projects amounting to billions of US dollars, state media said.
Japan is the earliest and largest investor in this sector with the huge investment from its famous groups such as Sanyo, Matsushita, Sony, Fujitsu, Toshiba and Nidec, which have been developing plans in Vietnam for a long time and are now continuing to pour in more capital to expand their operation.
Japan’s Canon, has spent hundreds of millions of US dollars on its new factories in northern Bac Ninh province, making Vietnam the world’s largest laser printer manufacturing center. It is also operating a US$100 million printer plant in Hanoi’s Thang Long Industrial Park.
Canon expects to obtain revenues of US$1 billion in 2007, according to Canon Vietnam CEO Sachio Kageyama.
Nidec has recently operated two new factories in the Saigon Hi-tech Park after pouring around US$100 million in its plants in the Ho Chi Minh-based Tan Thuan Export Processing Zone over the past ten years. The company also plans to set up ten plants on 33ha in the park to develop it into its second largest base in Asia, just behind China.
Intel’s US$1 billion chip assembly and testing project in Ho Chi Minh City, the US’s largest project in Vietnam so far, has paid the way for a new US investment wave into the Southeast-Asian country. Only two months after Intel’s project, the US’ leading electronic group Jabil decided to invest in the Saigon Hi-tech Park with US$100 million of capital.
Taiwan’s Foxconn, well-known as a giant firm producing electronic products such as Ipod players, Nokia mobile phones, laptops, Sony cameras, plans a US$5 billion hi-tech projects in the northern provinces of Bac Ninh and Bac Giang.
Those projects are expected to offer jobs for some 50,000 workers and create export revenue of around US$3.5 billion each year.
Meanwhile, another group of Taiwan, TECO, has joined hands with SaigonTel to invest US$1 billion to build a software center in the Thu Thiem new residential area.
Foreign investors are not only investing in production but also in research and development (R&D) center in Vietnam.
Matsushita Electric, the owner of the Panasonic brand name, has announced it will invest in a Panasonic R&D Center in the country after building two factories producing hi-tech electronic products in Hanoi. This will be the group’s third R&D center in Southeast-Asia to design system chipsets, software for mobile phones and flat-screen television sets.
Renesas Technology, Japan’s leading and the world’s third-largest semiconductor and chipset producer, is about to put into operation an R&D centre in Ho Chi Minh City. (Liberated Saigon, Vietnamnet)
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