Vietnam – Central Hub of ASEAN for Electronics Industry

 

In the past, foreign investment capital into Vietnam’s electronics industry reached over US$10 billion with great projects of Samsung, Foxconn, LG, Panasonic and Intel, becoming an attractive destination for the world electronics companies. In 2013 the electronics industry’s export turnover reached about US$32.2 billion, up 57 percent year-on-year and ranked first among Vietnam’s export sectors, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO). Vietnam’s electronics industry has basically met domestic demand for consumer products and exported products to nearly 50 countries in the region and the world, expecting export turnover in electronics industry to reach US$40 billion by 2017.

 

Mr Vu Huy Hoang, Minister of Industry and Trade recently said at the National Assembly that the policies to develop supporting industries had lagged behind reality, Vietnam’s policies to develop supporting industries to help local enterprises participate in supply chains in the local market have yet to create a favourable legal framework. Vietnam currently has only 656 enterprises producing spare parts, compared to 58,000 businesses operating in the manufacturing industry – a very small number. Vietnam sets the target to become an industrialized country by 2020, in which the supporting industry will be crucial.

 

Mr Ling Sing Kok, Assistant Director, Sales and Service Division of Panasonic said: “We think that in the next five to 10 years, Vietnam’s electronics manufacturing business will continue to grow with more foreign direct investment form Korea, China and Taiwan, as we can already see that their corporations are choosing to set up their factories in Vietnam. For our business, based on this trend we see a potential growth in demand for surface mount technology machines by at least 10 percent or more. We see a huge potential in Vietnam’s electronics industry, currently it is very much focused on the production of mobile phones, certain local electronic products and audio-visual products. There are still many more sophisticated electronic products such as tablets, notebooks and industrial LCD panels which could be made in Vietnam in the future.”

 

“Most importantly, a strong presence of supporting industries such as electrical component would enable us to respond to our customers’ needs with speed and flexibility, thus creating customer value. Panasonic is definitely keen to expand its presence in Vietnam. As to why Vietnamese manufacturers of electronic components are rare, such firms require substantial technology and investment, which at this stage are yet to be viable in the Vietnamese market.”

 

Mr Duangdej Yuaikwarmdee, Deputy Managing Director and General Manager Vietnam of Reed Tradex Co., Ltd. said that Vietnam electronics industry has developed rapidly in the past few years and become the world’s manufacturing base for hi-tech devices, attracting big foreign companies such as Panasonic, Samsung, Cannon, Intel, Fujitsu, LG and Nokia etc. to invest their production bases in northern Vietnam, while Vietnam’s government also offers subsidies and encouraging policies to attract foreign direct investment, which reflects that the government has achieved its objectives and moved in the right direction.

 

For example, Samsung is currently one of the largest investors in Vietnam; they invested tens of billions of US dollars in smartphone plants. Last year, they earned $23.9 billion in revenue for exporting phones produced and assembled in the country for 18 percent of Vietnam’s total export revenue. With 120 million of 400 million Samsung mobile phones sold globally manufactured in Bac Ninh, together with Samsung’s plant in Thai Nguyen that recently began operation, we see that Vietnam has become one of Samsung’s key manufacturing bases.

 

According to experts, the world electronics market would strongly grow in the upcoming time with an average growth of 10-12 percent. Products forecast to grow strongly include digital devices and computers, especially tablets and mobile phones. In particular, digital devices are predicted to grow by 15-18 percent.With these positive statistics, we believe that in the next three to five years, this will become the largest sector for the country’s export and Vietnam will become the biggest electronics manufacturing hub in ASEAN, continuing tremendous growth.

 

According to the positive statistics above, we have decided to organize “NEPCON Vietnam 2015” in Hanoi during 17 - 19 September to promote supporting industries, especially in the electronics sector. The show will serve as Vietnam’s Only Exhibition on SMT, Testing Technologies, Equipment, and Supporting Industries for Electronics Manufacturing. Over 100 leading brands of SMT solutions from 10 countries will come together, and over 7,000 potential buyers from the electronics manufacturing industry will discover the new technologies, solutions and knowledge that could help them improve their productivity and quality. This is the event of the year not to be missed for technology providers, entrepreneurs, and industrialists at every level in the production line to get ready for the ASEAN Economic Community.