After 20 years of operating in Vietnam, the head of a Japanese automation company sees a significant shift taking shape - and says building stronger talent and innovation capabilities will be key to attracting more high-tech FDI.

“If research used to take place overseas and manufacturing was done in Vietnam, that trend is now changing,” Nguyen Van Thuan, Director of Meiko Hightech, said during a discussion on “Promoting Vietnam-Japan cooperation in strategic technologies” at the National Innovation Center (NIC) on the afternoon of August 13.

According to Thuan, companies are gradually moving research activities to Vietnam, where Vietnamese and Japanese engineers are working together on product development.

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Nguyen Van Thuan, Director of Meiko Hightech, discusses how the company has evolved after 20 years of operations in Vietnam. Photo: Thuy Tien

Notably, some products are now being researched and developed in Vietnam. Once successfully developed, they are introduced at factories in Japan and China.

Meiko was licensed to invest in Vietnam in 2006 and currently operates five factories, with another two under construction. Total investment in the seven plants is now more than 10 times the initial $160 million.

The company is also researching smart factory solutions covering automation machinery, logistics, smart warehouses, the Internet of Things (IoT), AI-powered CCTV and manufacturing management systems.

Drawing on the transformation within his own company, Thuan said Vietnam should rethink its approach to attracting high-tech investment.

“When we build a highly skilled workforce and a strong innovation ecosystem, I believe it will become easier to attract FDI companies, particularly those from Japan,” he said.

The shift in R&D activities is also creating new demands for talent.

According to Bui Hung Viet, Chief Technology Officer of Viettel Software, Vietnam has many talented AI engineers, but they have not yet had enough opportunities to participate in large-scale projects.

He said this gap could be addressed through cooperation with foreign companies, including those from Japan.

While Japanese businesses have strengths in hardware, data centers and computing capacity, Vietnamese companies have an advantage in software development.

The two sides could therefore combine their respective strengths to develop AI platforms and software tools for the Japanese market.

The role of universities will also need to evolve if Vietnam is to develop a workforce capable of meeting these new demands.

Nguyen Hoang Anh, Rector of Vietnam Japan University, said businesses should be involved from the very beginning in designing academic curricula.

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Panelists, from left: Tran Huong Giang, Innovation and Project Management Specialist at UNDP in Vietnam; Bui Hung Viet, Chief Technology Officer of Viettel Software; and Nguyen Van Thuan, Director of Meiko Hightech. Photo: Thuy Tien
 

Without close cooperation with companies from the outset, graduates could struggle to find employment.

According to Anh, in sectors such as semiconductors, training programs need to be aligned with the needs of companies from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan (China) and other markets Vietnam is seeking to engage.

The challenge, therefore, is not simply to train more engineers, but also to create an environment where they can participate in real-world projects.

That, in turn, is essential if Vietnam is to move beyond its role as a manufacturing base and participate more deeply in the technology value chain.

Thuan said this transition needs to be translated into concrete projects with clear objectives and roadmaps, rather than stopping at broad ambitions in areas such as AI, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or semiconductors.

“If the two countries want to move forward together and grow together, we should have specific projects,” he said.

From the perspective of businesses and universities, Vietnam’s advantage in attracting high-tech investment is therefore no longer simply about labor costs. Increasingly, it lies in the country’s ability to connect talent, R&D, businesses and education into an ecosystem capable of creating technology products.

Du Lam