Intel Corp, the world's largest chipmaker, announced plans yesterday to build a US$300 million chip assembly and testing factory in southern Vietnam, giving a huge boost to the country's efforts to raise its high-tech profile.
The facility, which will be built in Ho Chi Minh City's Saigon Hi-Tech Park, marks the single largest US investment so far in its former wartime adversary. The deal is considered a significant one for Vietnam in its campaign to attract more foreign investors.
"We consider this to be one small step in a long journey of involvement with Vietnam," Intel chairman Craig Barrett said at a formal ceremony where Vietnam's Ministry of Investment and Planning handed over the investment license.
PHOTO: AFP
Construction on the plant, which will employ 1,200 people, will begin immediately, he said, adding that production is slated to start in the second half of next year. Barrett said he considers the facility to be only the first phase of Intel's investment in Vietnam.
Second phase possible
Intel's investment license was approved for US$605 million, and Barrett said he fully expects that if things go well, Intel will expand operations to a second phase.
"If we continue as we anticipate, we have the option to go up to US$605 million," he said.
Vietnamese leaders are hopeful that Intel's move will put an international spotlight on the country's attractions as an investment destination. Vietnam last year had an annual growth rate of 8.4 percent, one of the highest in the region.
Marking the significance of the deal, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung was among a host of Vietnamese dignitaries on hand for the ceremony, held at the Reunification Palace, the iconic spot where Communist tanks barreled through in April 1975, ending the Vietnam War.
But the days of conflict are long over, with current US-Vietnam relations at its highest point in decades. Bilateral trade has been booming, topping US$7.5 billion last year.
"For the Vietnamese IT [information technology] community, this is a big day -- probably the biggest day because Intel's investment in Vietnam is the most promising signal for the development of the industry," said Truong Gia Binh, CEO and president of FPT, Vietnam's leading software and computer manufacturer.
"It shows the maturity of the environment for IT development in Vietnam and it will also open up a very bright stage of development for Vietnam in the years to come," Binh said.
The plant in Ho Chi Minh City will be the first semiconductor facility in Vietnam and the sixth testing facility in Asia for Intel. The Santa Clara, California-based company has two plants in Malaysia, two in China and one in the Philippines.
Intel looked at many options to locate a new facility and Vietnam was chosen for several reasons, including its infrastructure, its young work force and a growing education system, Barrett said.
More firms to follow
Intel's decision to move to Vietnam will also help to bring other companies here, including suppliers and services, he said.
"When a major corporation like Intel chooses to relocate, the other corporations will follow," Barrett said.
About 260 US firms, with a combined capital of US$1.45 billion, have invested directly in Vietnam, according to government statistics.
NO RECIPROCITY: Taipei has called for cross-strait group travel to resume fully, but Beijing is only allowing people from its Fujian Province to travel to Matsu, the MAC said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday criticized an announcement by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism that it would lift a travel ban to Taiwan only for residents of China’s Fujian Province, saying that the policy does not meet the principles of reciprocity and openness. Chinese Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Rao Quan (饒權) yesterday morning told a delegation of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers in a meeting in Beijing that the ministry would first allow Fujian residents to visit Lienchiang County (Matsu), adding that they would be able to travel to Taiwan proper directly once express ferry
FAST RELEASE: The council lauded the developer for completing model testing in only four days and releasing a commercial version for use by academia and industry The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) yesterday released the latest artificial intelligence (AI) language model in traditional Chinese embedded with Taiwanese cultural values. The council launched the Trustworthy AI Dialogue Engine (TAIDE) program in April last year to develop and train traditional Chinese-language models based on LLaMA, the open-source AI language model released by Meta. The program aims to tackle the information bias that is often present in international large-scale language models and take Taiwanese culture and values into consideration, it said. Llama 3-TAIDE-LX-8B-Chat-Alpha1, released yesterday, is the latest large language model in traditional Chinese. It was trained based on Meta’s Llama-3-8B
STUMPED: KMT and TPP lawmakers approved a resolution to suspend the rate hike, which the government said was unavoidable in view of rising global energy costs The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said it has a mandate to raise electricity prices as planned after the legislature passed a non-binding resolution along partisan lines to freeze rates. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers proposed the resolution to suspend the price hike, which passed by a 59-50 vote. The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) voted with the KMT. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT said the resolution is a mandate for the “immediate suspension of electricity price hikes” and for the Executive Yuan to review its energy policy and propose supplementary measures. A government-organized electricity price evaluation board in March
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has