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COVER STORY

New wave forming
Deputy Chairman of the Vietnam Association of Foreign Invested Enterprises
(VAFIE) Nguyen Van Toan spoke with Vietnam Economic Times / VnEconomy /
Tap chi Kinh te Viet Nam on the sidelines of the 2024 Vietnam Connect Forum and
2024 Golden Dragon Awards about the opportunities for Vietnam to welcome a
new wave of high-quality FDI as many leading global corporations view the country
as an important link in global production chains.

INTERVIEW

% Vietnam attracted $36.6 billion worth tunities in rare earths and semiconductors. % Vietnam has significant opportunities
of FDI in 2023; a record in recent years. President of the US Semiconductor Indus- to attract high-quality FDI flows. How
The country is forecast to boast the try Association (SIA), Mr. John Neffeur, would you assess its readiness to absorb
conditions to attract more FDI in 2024. and leaders of leading semiconductor these flows?
What do you think about its prospects enterprises in the US such as Intel, Qual- Recent moves such as the establish-
in FDI attraction this year? com, Ampere, and ARM, have visited ment of the National Innovation Center
Vietnam does have many favorable Vietnam recently to study the market. In (NIC), the preparation of the semicon-
conditions to attract FDI. In particular, particular, Mr. Neffeur, who is also Pres- ductor development strategy, and coop-
the upgrade of Vietnam-US relations to ident and CEO of US chip giant Nvidia, eration with foreign businesses and part-
a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership has a plan to build a manufacturing plant ners to train 50,000 engineers by 2030
has had a positive impact on FDI flows in the country. demonstrate Vietnam’s readiness to wel-
from the US and Europe. Investment Investors from other countries like come high-quality FDI flows.
from some European partners, such as China, South Korea, and Japan have also However, it should be noted that readi-
the Netherlands and Germany, increased conducted working visits to Vietnam to ness does not necessarily mean we can
remarkably last year. seek investment opportunities in the fields completely absorb all of these capital
Apart from competitive advantages in of manufacturing and processing and flows. In 2008, when Vietnam joined the
investment attraction, such as a stable polit- high technology. WTO, FDI rose remarkably, to over $64
ical and economic environment, the signing The movement of global production billion, but the country was not capable
of many free trade agreements (FTAs), and chains, particularly in the chip industry, of absorbing so much capital, and dis-
an abundant workforce, Vietnam also has which is the technology of the future, bursement was rather low.
strengths in rare earths, which are an impor- is opening up opportunities for Viet- It is necessary to learn from 2008 and
tant material in developing the semicon- nam to attract high-tech FDI. This tap the opportunities, creating a break-
ductor, chip, and electronic industries. means that the possibility of continued through in FDI attraction in terms of qual-
Many US corporations came to Viet- high-quality FDI flows into Vietnam ity. Vietnam is considered an important
nam in 2023 seeking investment oppor- is promising. link in the global semiconductor production

24 Vietnam Economic Times April 15, 2024 en.vneconomy.vn