Mr. Truong Gia Binh Expects to Make Vietnam a New Destination for the Semiconductor Industry at the World Economic Forum

On January 16 (local time), in Davos, Switzerland, within the framework of his working trip to attend the World Economic Forum (WEF), Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chaired a discussion with global businesses on cooperation in developing artificial intelligence (AI), automotive technology, semiconductor chips and ecosystems related to these industries. The event was jointly organized by the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Vietnamese Embassy in Switzerland and FPT Corporation. Attending the event were Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung, Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien, Minister of Science and Technology Huynh Thanh Dat, Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son, Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Nguyen Thi Hong, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Phan Van Mai; Representatives of Vietnamese businesses included Chairman of FPT Corporation - Truong Gia Binh, representatives of Vietcombank, VinaCapital. The event also had representatives of major corporations in the world such as Google, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, H&M Hennes & Mauritz, Siemens, Mahindra, PSA International, JANZZ.technology, Qualcomm...

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and delegates at a discussion with global businesses on cooperation in developing AI, automotive technology, and semiconductor chips - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

At the event, representatives of Vietnam and domestic and foreign enterprises shared to find new opportunities and promote investment cooperation activities in the coming time. Enterprises presented the orientation of investment cooperation in Vietnam in the three fields of AI, semiconductors and automobile industry; at the same time, listened to the Prime Minister and leaders of ministries and branches speak about the vision, orientation and solutions to promote development, cooperation, and investment attraction in these fields, as well as the foundations for macroeconomic stability, a peaceful, stable and developing environment in Vietnam. Representatives of major corporations in the world such as Google, Siemens, Qualcomn, Ericsson... highly appreciated Vietnam's development achievements and hoped that the Vietnamese Government would continue to create favorable conditions for businesses to invest in and develop in the fields of technology, innovation, semiconductors, AI, strategic infrastructure... Mr. Scott Beaumont, President of Asia - Pacific, Google said: "We look forward to cooperating with the Vietnamese Government to take advantage of the potential in the field of artificial intelligence. By 2024, we will help partners access artificial intelligence by providing world-class tools and infrastructure. In Vietnam, we are focusing on artificial intelligence in cooperation with programmers, startups, game/application developers and the Government to use artificial intelligence to solve major difficulties in health management, traffic and flood forecasting". At the event, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh informed about Vietnam's basic achievements after nearly 40 years of renovation and the fundamental factors, goals and major orientations in the country's development. According to the Prime Minister, AI, semiconductors and the automobile industry are important industries, with both old development drivers that need to be renewed and new drivers for development. The Prime Minister said that Vietnam has issued a development strategy in the field of AI; building national data centers connected to data centers of ministries, branches and localities. Regarding automobile technology, Vietnam focuses on developing electric cars, using clean materials, low carbon emissions and investing in green transportation. Regarding the semiconductor industry, Vietnam identifies this as a new development driver and will invest to participate in all three stages in the semiconductor microchip value chain including design, manufacturing and packaging; currently continuing to focus on developing information technology platforms, human resources and will have appropriate incentive policies. Sharing about the opportunities of Vietnam's semiconductor industry, Chairman of FPT Group Truong Gia Binh said: “The semiconductor industry has many special features. In 1960, the semiconductor industry developed in the US, then in the 1970s it moved to Korea and Taiwan. But today, the semiconductor industry is in great need, but the workforce, especially young people in countries like the US, Japan and Korea, do not want to work in this industry, because this industry develops quickly and requires hard work. Meanwhile, Vietnamese youth really like to work in this industry. To attract young people to this industry, we must open up opportunities for young people to work in the US, Japan and Korea. I hope there will be more cooperation with foreign enterprises so that Vietnam becomes a destination for the industry.”

FPT Corporation Chairman Truong Gia Binh shares about opportunities for Vietnam's semiconductor industry.

In the field of semiconductor technology, FPT has been preparing for 10 years. In 2022, the group established FPT Semiconductor and included microchip design training content in the curriculum of FPT University. “We and the National Innovation Center (NIC) together with the American technology expert organization TreSemi signed a cooperation agreement to establish the Vietnam Semiconductor Education Center (VSHE). The center will help Vietnam train an expected 50,000 more semiconductor engineers in the coming years, thereby improving the quality of human resources, creating trust in the regional semiconductor ecosystem and in the global value chain,” said Mr. Binh. In addition, Mr. Truong Gia Binh affirmed that since 2013, FPT has identified artificial intelligence as a key technology in the digital transformation strategy in Vietnam and around the world. Since then, FPT has focused on investing in research and development of artificial intelligence from human resources, infrastructure, data, bringing artificial intelligence into life and has achieved some results. Most recently, the virtual assistant using FPT artificial intelligence won the leading virtual assistant software award in 2023, affirming the quality of "Made in Vietnam" technology products in the international market and motivating the team to continue towards the goal of making Vietnam the center of artificial intelligence in the region and the world. In the field of automotive technology, FPT has more than 10 years of experience in the industry, has more than 4,000 engineers and experts in the field of automotive software, and a network of more than 150 customers who are major car manufacturers in the world. FPT has decided to establish FPT Automotive in the US by the end of 2023. “We plan to focus on key markets such as the US, Europe, Japan, Korea, China and Vietnam with professionalism and confidence in ensuring compliance with industry standards in functional safety management and software development processes in the automotive sector. We look forward to continuing to work with leading OEMs to accelerate the development of the automotive industry, an industry that is being determined by software,” said Mr. Truong Gia Binh. Concluding the discussion, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh affirmed that in 2023, in the context of many difficulties and challenges, Vietnam will still maintain macroeconomic stability, control inflation, promote growth, ensure a large balance; attract nearly 37 billion USD of registered FDI capital and disburse about 23 billion USD of FDI capital. The Prime Minister hopes that businesses will continue to cooperate and invest effectively and sustainably in Vietnam, affirming that Vietnam always accompanies and cooperates with investors on the principle of harmonious interests between the State, people, businesses and investors, and at the same time, when there are risks, they will share them.