For several months, Apple has been posting recruitment notices on its official website and LinkedIn in its largest-ever recruitment campaign in Vietnam.

Tung Tzu-hsien, president of Pegatron

Analysts noted that Apple is not only seeking candidates for the posts in sale and administration management, but is also looking for technology officers.

Apple is seeking camera test engineers, screen mechanical engineers, screen quality managers, software engineers and workers for FATP, or final assembly test and packing.

The manufacturer recruited workers for some posts in the past, but they were
mostly related to business, sale and retail management.

Apple is running a large recruitment campaign in Vietnam, while many other foreign technology firms are considering pouring capital into projects in the country.

Apple is also seeking high-ranking government affairs and administration managers. This could be seen as a sign of Apple planning to set up an office in Vietnam.

The posts are based in Hanoi and HCM City.

Analysts believe that the world’s leading smartphone manufacturer wants to expand production for their partners in Vietnam.

Nikkei Asian Review in January 2020 reported that Pegatron, the world’s second largest electronics assembler, would open factories in Vietnam and Indonesia by the end of the year.

Pegatron is one of Apple’s strategic partners, which assembles iPhones, iPads and MacBooks.

Tung Tzu-hsien, president of Pegatron, confirmed the gradual production relocation out of China, saying that the operation cost in the country is increasing because of higher labor costs and the tensions from the US-China trade war.

Luxshare Precision and Goertek, the two partners making AirPods for Apple in China are negotiating to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars to scale up production in Vietnam, according to Information.

Luxshare has been running a production line in Vietnam since 2018, according to a list of suppliers made public by Apple. Goertek has a factory in Vietnam which began operation in 2015. The factory makes Lightning cables and EarPods earphones.

Apple also had a partner which made chips for Apple Watch in district 7 in HCM City.

Since 2019, many technology groups have announced their plans to leave China to avoid the US-China trade war. The plans apparently have been delayed partially because of Covid-19.

It is expected that after the pandemic is contained, the investment wave to Vietnam will become stronger. Many multi-national groups have chosen Vietnam as the location for their production bases. Samsung and LG invested in new production lines in Vietnam instead of China as planned in 2019. 

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