HANOI: Vietnam expects to attract major high-tech and future technology projects in 2024, as many foreign big names in this field have shown interest in the country.
Late last month, China’s Hainan Drinda New Energy Technology Co signed a memorandum of understanding on investing in a solar panel factory in the central province of Nghe An.
Located in Hoang Mai II Industrial Park, the 58-ha factory has a total investment capital of US$450mil.
It will have a designed production capacity of 14 GW, according to an online newspaper.
Vice-chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Bùi Thanh An said that the factory would contribute to the renewable energy transition, helping the country realise its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
Meanwhile, Lam Research, one of the leading US semiconductor manufacturing equipment providers, said it looked to expand operations and diversify its supply chain in Asia.
In Vietnam, the company planned to collaborate with Seojin, which already had factories in northern Bac Ninh and Bac Giang provinces, to develop factories and establish a supply chain with an investment of US$1bil to US$2bil in the first phase, Karthik Rammohan, group vice-president of Global Operations at Lam Research said.
After the first phase, the firm would possibly invest directly or expand its operations in the South-East Asian country, he said during a meeting with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chính late last month.
Similarly, a joint venture between China’s Huadian Corp and Vietnam’s Minh Quang company has announced its plan to invest in a super project to produce green hydrogen in the central province of Quang Tri, with a total capital of around US$2.4bil, the province reported.
According to president of Vietnam’s Association of Foreign-Invested Enterprises, Nguyen Mai, despite the country’s desire to attract investment in advanced, new, and future technology projects such as semiconductor, artificial intelligence and green hydrogen, the biggest obstacle was that it did not have adequate institutions, policies and mechanisms.
The investment environment and administrative procedure issues still had many problems, baodautu.vn cited the chairman as saying.
To attract more investment, he proposed giving priority to perfect institutions and laws, improving internal strength, modernising socio-economic infrastructure and speeding up administrative reform.
During the Vietnam Global Manufacturing Forum 2024 held last month in Hanoi, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Duy Dong said Vietnam had prepared the necessary conditions to attract “eagles” worldwide in the electronics and semiconductor industry.
Statistics from the Foreign Investment Agency revealed that Vietnam attracted US$6.17bil worth of foreign investment in the first quarter of 2024, a year-on-year rise of 13.4%. — Viet Nam News/ANN