The market for integrated circuits and semiconductors in Vietnam hashuge potential, offering great opportunities for domestic and foreignenterprises to invest in and develop the industry, experts said at theSEMI Vietnam Semiconductor Strategy Summit in Ho Chi Minh City onSeptember 10.
The summit, the first of its kind in thecity, is a platform for local and international industrial experts,state management agencies and businesses to discuss strategies andopportunities in the Vietnamese semiconductor industry.
Speaking at the event, To Thi Thu Huong, deputy director general ofthe Department of Information Technology under the Ministry ofInformation and Communications, said that the IC industry is coresupport industry for the development of other industries, includinginformation technology, telecoms, and mechanical and automaticengineering.
Acknowledging the importance of theindustry, in the past few years, the Vietnamese Government has issuedpolicies to encourage development of the IC semiconductor industry.
In response to the Government policy, HCM City has outlined its IC development plan for the 2013-20 period.
It aims to develop human resources, incubate IC businesses, design andmanufacture prototypes, promote the semiconductor and IC industries andbuild a fabrication and a design centre.
FollowingIntel's 1 billion USD micro-chip plant in Saigon Hi-Tech Park in 2006,HCM City established the Semiconductor Industry Association (HSIA)in March this year.
It has also developed a plan to build the country's first wafer fabrication plant in the high-tech park.
A wafer is a thin piece of semiconductor crystal used to make ICs.
Pham Ba Tuan, senior advisor for the Waferfab project, said the plant,invested in by the Saigon Industry Corporation (CNS), will help buildan ecosystem for the semiconductor industry, covering product design toIC manufacturing and testing and finally the semiconductor supportingindustry.
"It will be sufficient to cover domesticdemand for ICs, preventing the spending of hard-earned money fromlabour-intensive industry on purchasing semiconductor goods," he said.
Tuan said the need for ICs in Vietnam was close to 2 billion USDlast year. The demand is expected to continue to increase in the comingtime. Currently, most of these goods are imported, he added.
In addition, despite the contraction of worldwide semiconductor revenue, Asia continues showing positive development.
This indicates that the IC need in the region remains strong, he added.
"The growing demand of the domestic market will give the Waferfabproject a very good chance to meet some of this demand," he said.
Potential applications for wafers in Vietnam include SIMS cards,electronic ID/licence cards, radio frequency identification, sensorinterfaces IC, phone chips and many others, he added.
"For IC development, we need to build a strong workforce that meetsinternational quality standards for the field of design and fabricationof semiconductor chips," said Vu Dinh Thanh, rector of the HCM CityUniversity of Technology.
IC is at the heart of many electronics and is considered to be one of the most important support industries in Vietnam .
Apart from financial investment, development of a skilled workforce,partnerships with established microelectronic markets, and other needsmust also be addressed to develop the IC industry.
Human resources are crucial to the industrialisation and modernisationof the country. However, high-tech human resources in the country areconsidered insufficient and poorly skilled, Thanh said.
Vietnam will eventually have about 22 companies related to IC design, requiring about 14,000 personnel this year.
All of the surveyed companies said they will increase the number of engineers working in Vietnam .
However, Vietnam 's universities only offer electrical engineering,electronics and telecommunications subjects for study and do notprovide training for IC design.
He called on universities, institute and businesses to join hands to develop the human resource for the IC industry.
In an effort to meet a part of HR demand, Thanh said his university aswell as others have developed collaboration programmes with Japaneseand Swiss universities on training programmes in IC design, and haveprovided short training courses for enterprises.
Thesummit was organised by SEMI in collaboration with Saigon Hi-Tech Parkand the HCM City Semiconductor Industry Association.-VNA
The summit, the first of its kind in thecity, is a platform for local and international industrial experts,state management agencies and businesses to discuss strategies andopportunities in the Vietnamese semiconductor industry.
Speaking at the event, To Thi Thu Huong, deputy director general ofthe Department of Information Technology under the Ministry ofInformation and Communications, said that the IC industry is coresupport industry for the development of other industries, includinginformation technology, telecoms, and mechanical and automaticengineering.
Acknowledging the importance of theindustry, in the past few years, the Vietnamese Government has issuedpolicies to encourage development of the IC semiconductor industry.
In response to the Government policy, HCM City has outlined its IC development plan for the 2013-20 period.
It aims to develop human resources, incubate IC businesses, design andmanufacture prototypes, promote the semiconductor and IC industries andbuild a fabrication and a design centre.
FollowingIntel's 1 billion USD micro-chip plant in Saigon Hi-Tech Park in 2006,HCM City established the Semiconductor Industry Association (HSIA)in March this year.
It has also developed a plan to build the country's first wafer fabrication plant in the high-tech park.
A wafer is a thin piece of semiconductor crystal used to make ICs.
Pham Ba Tuan, senior advisor for the Waferfab project, said the plant,invested in by the Saigon Industry Corporation (CNS), will help buildan ecosystem for the semiconductor industry, covering product design toIC manufacturing and testing and finally the semiconductor supportingindustry.
"It will be sufficient to cover domesticdemand for ICs, preventing the spending of hard-earned money fromlabour-intensive industry on purchasing semiconductor goods," he said.
Tuan said the need for ICs in Vietnam was close to 2 billion USDlast year. The demand is expected to continue to increase in the comingtime. Currently, most of these goods are imported, he added.
In addition, despite the contraction of worldwide semiconductor revenue, Asia continues showing positive development.
This indicates that the IC need in the region remains strong, he added.
"The growing demand of the domestic market will give the Waferfabproject a very good chance to meet some of this demand," he said.
Potential applications for wafers in Vietnam include SIMS cards,electronic ID/licence cards, radio frequency identification, sensorinterfaces IC, phone chips and many others, he added.
"For IC development, we need to build a strong workforce that meetsinternational quality standards for the field of design and fabricationof semiconductor chips," said Vu Dinh Thanh, rector of the HCM CityUniversity of Technology.
IC is at the heart of many electronics and is considered to be one of the most important support industries in Vietnam .
Apart from financial investment, development of a skilled workforce,partnerships with established microelectronic markets, and other needsmust also be addressed to develop the IC industry.
Human resources are crucial to the industrialisation and modernisationof the country. However, high-tech human resources in the country areconsidered insufficient and poorly skilled, Thanh said.
Vietnam will eventually have about 22 companies related to IC design, requiring about 14,000 personnel this year.
All of the surveyed companies said they will increase the number of engineers working in Vietnam .
However, Vietnam 's universities only offer electrical engineering,electronics and telecommunications subjects for study and do notprovide training for IC design.
He called on universities, institute and businesses to join hands to develop the human resource for the IC industry.
In an effort to meet a part of HR demand, Thanh said his university aswell as others have developed collaboration programmes with Japaneseand Swiss universities on training programmes in IC design, and haveprovided short training courses for enterprises.
Thesummit was organised by SEMI in collaboration with Saigon Hi-Tech Parkand the HCM City Semiconductor Industry Association.-VNA
