Telecom operators urged to lead semiconductor chip research and development

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has urged four State-owned telecom companies, namely Viettel, VNPT, MobiFone, and Gtel Mobile, to take the lead in semiconductor chip research, development and production.

Viet Nam has a lot of potential to develop semiconductor chip technology.

Its chip market has experienced an annual growth rate of 6.12 per cent in recent years. The scale of the market is expected to reach about US$1.66 billion by 2027. 

Bloomberg reported that, Viet Nam’s market revenue from the U.S. grew from US$321.7 million in February, 2022 to over US$562 million in February, 2023. Viet Nam occupied 11.6 percent of the U.S. market share, only after Malaysia, Taiwan.

Viet Nam attracted the great attention of investors and has become a destination for researching, developing and producing semiconductor chips. The country has the advantage of natural conditions and is one of the few countries in the world with rare earth reserves – an important raw material in semiconductor chip production.

However, the investment in developing personnel resources for the semiconductor chip sector in Viet Nam remains modest. Up to now, Viet Nam only has 5,000 engineers working in about 40 chip and semiconductor companies.

Following the State’s plan to train about 50,000 engineers in semiconductor chips from now to 2030, FPT made preparations and policies to develop human resources in the industry. Besides the launch of FPT Semiconductor Co, which targets to train 10,000 engineers by 2030, FPT also accelerated international cooperation, investment and mergers and acquisitions of foreign IT firms./.