The opportunity has come
Don Tran, Managing Director of Global Equipment Services GES, said thedemand for electronic products in Vietnam has been increasing rapidlythanks to the increasingly high percentage of people using Internet andtheir improved income. Meanwhile, enterprises tend to more utilise theinformation technology and high technologies in their production andbusiness.
All these could be the favorableconditions for Vietnam to develop a semiconductor IC factory it has beenstriving for a long time.
According to theofficial, the heavy investment in the semiconducting industry would helpreduce the imports, increase the values of domestically madeelectronics and ease the reliance on imports.
"Ibelieve that the establishment of an IC factory in Ho Chi Minh City is aright move, because all the necessary factors have got ready, from thelabour force, technique, transport and good development policies," hesaid.
Bettina Weiss, Vice President of SEMI, alsothinks that it’s now the right time for Vietnam to join the ICproduction market. Nowadays, every person owns more than one digitaldevice, which means the demand for IC has been increasing rapidly, headded
Asia- Pacific has emerged as a world’s leadingsource of IC supply. China’s Taiwan, for example, now holds 13-16percent of the market share, China 9 percent.
To ThiThu Huong, Deputy Director of the Information Technology Departmentunder the Ministry of Information and Communications, also said thegovernment has highlighted the IC production as one of the priorityindustries.
Analysts have predicted that the Vietnamese IC market is worth 2 billion USD a year.
Knowing its own strength
As such, the matter for discussion now is what way Vietnam should follow to develop the semiconductor industry.
According to Huong, there would be many different phases ofdevelopment. The first would be the time for setting up theinfrastructure, designing IC production factories, and building up theworkforce, while the next would be the period for development whichneeds the state’s support to help create the market for domesticproducts.
In order to do that, it’s necessary to build up the list of the strategic products Vietnam should focus on.
Vietnam now still cannot make the products which require hightechnologies, the 90 nm – 45 nm chips. Therefore, it would be better tofocus on the products which fit its capability in the immediate time.
Pham Ba Tuan from the CNS IC factory project, which isexpected to be implemented in the time to come, thinks that the 180 nmtechnology proves to be most suitable to the Vietnamese currentfinancial capability. If it chooses the 90 nm, the price it has to paywould be triple. Meanwhile, the 180 nm is believed to exist in the next20 years.
He went on to say that an IC factory wouldnot be enough for the semiconductor industry development. In thefuture, Vietnam would need to set up research and development (R&D)centres, or the design centres which would test if the products fit themarket or not before they are put into mass production.-VNA