Difficulties abound: Motorists on a busy street in Hanoi. Vietnam’s electronics industry faces many challenges such as a shortage of capital and human resources, especially management and production operations personnel. — AFP
HANOI: Vietnam’s supporting industry for electronics needs more support policies from the state in addition to the efforts of enterprises to thrive.
The government has identified electronics as a key sector in the economy, which also has a big impact on other industries.
The goal is that, by 2030 Vietnam will become a major producer of electronics with new, smart and environmentally friendly technology.
Economic experts said Vietnam could be an Asian manufacturing centre of supporting products for the electronics industry.
The General Statistics Office said the electronics industry is still the lead in the manufacturing and processing industries, with high export value.
The total export turnover of the electronics industry was US$109bil in 2023.
In the first nine months of this year, it climbed to US$97bil, up 10% over the same period last year. This year’s revenues are forecast to increase to US$120bil.
Pham Tuan Anh, deputy director of the Department of Industry, under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MIT), said Vietnam’s electronics industry had developed robustly in recent years due to attracting large investments from multinational corporations from major economies such as South Korea and Japan.
Multiple large electronics companies in the world had invested in building high-tech electronic product manufacturing facilities in Vietnam, such as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, LG Corp, Hon Hai Technology Group and Fukang Technology.
According to MIT, Vietnam exports computers and electronic components to more than 100 markets around the world, mainly to China, Asean, Japan and South Korea.
Electronics export is also expanding to European markets including Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and Finland.
With deep integration into the global market, Vietnam is becoming a key destination for many global manufacturers of electrical and electronic products.
There are many opportunities to participate in the global supply chain, according to economic experts, but domestic enterprises are limited in numerous aspects such as capital, experience, technology and relationships with global corporations.
The electronics industry is also facing many difficulties and challenges such as shortage of capital and human resources, especially management and production operations personnel.
The industry is subject to increasingly tightened regulations on sustainable production in Europe and the US.
To have sustainable development for the electronics export business in the context of Vietnam participating in a series of free trade agreements, supportive solutions from the state are needed.
The state should pay attention to incentives for domestic businesses in the stages of research, trial production and trade promotion programmes.
It also needs to review and improve legal policies, especially specific regulations on goods with Vietnamese origin and implement solutions to expand domestic and export markets.
According to Do Thi Thuy Huong, executive committee member of Vietnam Electronics Enterprises Association and vice president of the Supporting Industry Association, the government’s Decree 111 issued on Nov 3, 2015, is the current support policy for the electronics industry.
This decree has contributed to the rapid development of supporting industries, but has many limitations.
Therefore, he said it is necessary to complete the amendment and supplementation of Decree 111 to remove the bottlenecks in the market and increase credit for supporting industry enterprises.
Additionally, the MIT is drafting a law on key industries in which the supporting industries are one of the important parts of the development strategy in the future.
A representative of the MIT’s Department of Industry said building a long-term supportive strategy is needed to help improve the industry’s competitiveness and manufacture high value-added products.
This can be done by boosting the production of screens, semiconductors and other electronic components, which require regular large investments over a period of 10 to 20 years. This will help improve production capacity and technology.
Lai Hoang Duong, chairman of the Thánh Gióng Communications and Computer JSC, said Vietnam’s enterprises must prepare resources and define specific goals for specific periods. Companies also need a lot of support from the state through programmes and activities, Duong said. — Viet Nam News/ANN
