Vietnam may become the world’s new production base

More and more foreign investors are coming to Vietnam, which is gradually making Vietnam a new production base of the world.

Russia's Sputnik news agency has called Vietnam "the world's new production base". Citing record export numbers, foreign investment flows are pouring into Vietnam, Sputnik said.

After Intel, Samsung and LG, more and more foreign businesses are flocking to Vietnam, for example Foxconn, Luxshare, Winston, Compal, Pegatron... These investors have all made large investments in Vietnam, and all have plans to expand their investments.

Among these, Samsung can be considered a typical example. Since starting investment in Vietnam in 2008 (although there was previously a small-scale TV factory in Ho Chi Minh City), Samsung by the end of 2021 had poured 18 billion USD to build three high-tech complexes in Bac Ninh, Thai Nguyen and Ho Chi Minh City.

In addition to the newly invested project of 920 million USD in Thai Nguyen, in total, Samsung has invested 19.2 billion USD to be the largest foreign investor in Vietnam today.

Samsung emphasized in official statements that Vietnam is not only the largest global production base of this world's largest electronics group, but also will become a strategic center for research and development (R&D).

Samsung is currently building a new Research and Development Center in Hanoi, with an investment scale of up to 220 million USD, to improve medium- and long-term research and development capacity in Vietnam in fields such as artificial intelligence (AI), Big Data, and Internet of Things (IoT).

In a report published at the end of 2021, Savills Vietnam said that, from an economy with labor-intensive industries, Vietnam is continuing to shift to high-value industries.

“Low value industries are slowly taking shape in other parts of Southeast Asia. The reason is that Vietnam no longer applies preferential policies as before, so finding cheap labor and land in Vietnam has become quite difficult. However, investors in high-value industries abroad are still optimistic about Vietnam's long-term growth," said John Campbell, Industrial Real Estate Manager, Savills Vietnam.

Looking at the statistics on the import and export situation of Vietnam in recent years, this can be clearly seen. In the past, textiles, footwear, and crude oil were the main export items, but now, mobile phones, electronics and computers have "usurped the throne".

According to data from the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade, in 2021, the export turnover of computer products, electronic products and components reached 50.828 billion USD, holding the No. 2 position in the group of key export products.

The top position continued to belong to mobile phones and components, with 57.54 billion USD, up 12.4% compared to 2020.

Samsung was still a major contributor to Vietnam’s export revenue. In 2021, Samsung Vietnam achieved a revenue of 74.2 billion USD, up 14% compared to 2020. Meanwhile, export turnover reached 65.5 billion USD, up 16% compared to 2020. This is a successful achievement. This is a remarkable performance in the context that the market is facing many difficulties due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Not only Samsung, but other investors, such as Intel, LG, Foxconn... are constantly expanding their investment and production activities in Vietnam.

Le Ha