As geopolitical tensions around the world escalate, shifts in supply chains have made Vietnam a leading hub for international companies' workforce development initiatives, Digitimes Asia reported.
Although the Vietnamese government has set a target of training 50,000 semiconductor engineers by 2030, the shortage of human resources in the country continues. The Ministry of Information and Communications admits that Vietnam only has enough semiconductor human resources to meet 20% of the demand.
According to FPT Corporation, the country has about 5,000 semiconductor engineers working at about 40 companies. This means that Vietnam must increase the number of semiconductor engineers tenfold by 2030 to achieve the target.
FPT has committed to training 10,000 engineers as part of its contribution to Vietnam’s semiconductor industry . Major companies such as Viettel and VNPT are also actively involved in semiconductor engineering research and development.
In the semiconductor supply chain, Vietnam focuses mainly on logistics processes such as packaging and testing, for example, Intel operates a packaging plant in Vietnam. The Vietnam Institute of Industry and Trade Policy and Strategy (VIOIT) also pointed out that while the semiconductor industry includes many activities, Vietnam is currently limited to simple tasks such as packaging.
Despite the current shortage of semiconductor engineers and the semiconductor industry being in its early stages of meeting government targets, Nikkei Asia found that many foreign companies are very interested in Vietnam's human resource development efforts.
One of the reasons for the growing interest in Vietnam’s semiconductor workforce is trade tensions between major economies. As supply chains shift to Southeast Asia, the demand for skilled labor increases accordingly.
In addition, South Korea, Taiwan (China) and the US are facing a shortage of domestic semiconductor workers and are looking to Vietnam as a solution. South Korea's MetisX company notes that after years of hard work, Korean experts often move to work for large companies such as Nvidia.
Korean companies are encouraged to offer more attractive salaries and benefits to retain talent, but individual companies still find it difficult to achieve this goal. Therefore, the Korean business community has proposed taking advantage of other countries' education systems and easing visa restrictions on foreign workers, with Vietnam often mentioned as a prime candidate for this initiative.
Taiwan-based Alchip Technologies is also setting up an office in Vietnam and expanding its research and development team there. The work ethic and attractiveness of Vietnamese labor are said to be factors behind the choice. To be fair, while Alchip still plans to expand its presence in Japan, the size of the company makes it more difficult to expand in Japan.
Nikkei pointed out that companies such as Marvell, Synopsys, Infineon, Global Unichip, eSilicon, BOS Semiconductors and ADTechnology all have research and development centers in Vietnam. Enterprises are also supporting Vietnamese human resources through internship and scholarship programs.
For example, Samsung Electronics has partnered with the Vietnam National Innovation Center (NIC) to launch a human resource training program. Similarly, Pegatron offers scholarships and internship programs in the region.
Of Vietnam’s 240 universities, nearly 160 offer technology-related programs, with programs including semiconductor topics. In addition, 35 universities have established semiconductor-specialized departments.
