Benefiting from its favorable geographical location, competitive production costs, sound demographic structure, stable political environment, and corresponding policy support, Vietnam has emerged as a prominent player in the global electronic industry landscape in recent years, becoming a high-profile emerging force and a beneficiary of global manufacturing relocation.

In the Draft Strategy for the Development of Vietnam’s Semiconductor Microchip Industry, the Vietnamese government clearly outlines its goal to build Vietnam into a global center for semiconductor chip design, packaging, and testing by 2030, and strives to achieve the long-term target of annual revenue exceeding USD 100 billion by 2050.

To advance the aforementioned strategy, in addition to focusing on building a comprehensive semiconductor and chip industry ecosystem covering all links from design, R&D to production, packaging, and testing, the government has also been increasing efforts in tax exemptions, preferences, subsidies, and talent development.
Foreign-Invested Electronic Industry: Driven by Both Policy Incentives and Trade Advantages
Under Vietnam’s Decree No. 218/2013/ND-CP, foreign-invested electronic manufacturing enterprises are eligible for an additional tax exemption period of 2 to 4 years, followed by a 50% reduction in corporate income tax for 4 to 9 years. Decree No. 182/2024/ND-CP, issued on December 31, 2024, states that “enterprises investing in R&D center projects in the semiconductor and artificial intelligence (AI) fields that meet specific conditions and standards may receive a subsidy of up to 50% of the project’s initial investment cost, or other subsidy levels determined by the government.”

Specifically, high-tech enterprises must have a minimum investment capital of 12 trillion Vietnamese dong or a minimum annual revenue of 20 trillion Vietnamese dong; enterprises undertaking high-tech application projects such as semiconductor integrated circuits and AI data centers must have a minimum investment capital of 6 trillion Vietnamese dong or a minimum annual revenue of 10 trillion Vietnamese dong; microchip design projects have no minimum capital or revenue requirements, but after operating in Vietnam for 5 years, they must commit to employing at least 300 Vietnamese engineers or managers and training at least 30 high-quality microchip design engineers annually.

Take the Vietnamese government’s approval in March 2025 of 12.8 trillion Vietnamese dong (approximately USD 500 million) to build the country’s first wafer fab as an example: if the project starts production before December 31, 2030, the enterprise will receive government funding support of 30% of the total investment, not exceeding 10 trillion Vietnamese dong. In addition, the wafer fab is also eligible for an additional 10% corporate income tax refund (totaling 20%) for reinvestment in technology. The land use right for the wafer fab can be obtained directly through allocation, without going through the auction process.

Meanwhile, Vietnam has actively participated in and signed trade agreements such as the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) and FTAs (Free Trade Agreements), bringing significant tariff benefits to foreign-invested enterprises in the electronic industry. When enterprises import or export to the EU and ASEAN countries, tariffs on some products are exempted by up to 100%, which greatly enhances the price competitiveness of products in the international market. This has prompted many foreign-invested electronic enterprises to regard Vietnam as an important production base and use its tariff advantages to expand into the global market.
Domestic Electronic Enterprises: Triple Guarantees of Funding, Taxation, and Services
To encourage domestic enterprises to strengthen industrial collaboration, enhance their participation and added value in the industrial chain, and promote the development of domestic electronic industry clusters, the Ministry of Information and Communications of Vietnam released the Draft Digital Technology Industry Law in October 2024. It proposes that if Vietnamese domestic enterprises involve 30% of enterprises (by number) in assembly, component supply, and services in the manufacturing of digital technology products, and their cost contribution reaches 30%, the income from product manufacturing can enjoy a corporate income tax rate of 10% for 15 years.

In addition, relevant enterprises can also obtain national investment credit in accordance with the Investment Credit Law, or preferential loans from the Vietnam Environmental Protection Fund for environmental pollution treatment. Land use and rental fees can also enjoy relevant preferences in accordance with the Land Law. At the same time, the government will provide customs procedure facilitation, establish investment matching mechanisms and talent recruitment frameworks, and promote technology transfer and corporate mergers and acquisitions.

Decree No. 182/2024/ND-CP also establishes an investment support fund. This fund provides cash grants or subsidies to eligible high-tech enterprises (including those in the electronic industry), covering expenses for human resource development, R&D, fixed asset investment, and high-tech manufacturing. This provides funding guarantees for domestic electronic enterprises in key links, eases their financial pressure, and helps them carry out technological innovation and scale expansion.

In some specific regions, such as Da Nang City, a resolution of the National Assembly of Vietnam stipulates that starting from January 1, 2025, semiconductor chip enterprises’ income from sales guidance and AI innovation and entrepreneurship activities will be exempt from corporate income tax for 5 years from the date when the payable income tax arises.
Park Empowerment and Giant Aggregation Jointly Promote Development
Vietnam has actively built various industrial parks and science and technology parks to provide complete hardware facilities and industrial supporting services for electronic enterprises. It has established the National Innovation Center (NIC), multiple high-tech parks, and many other standard industrial parks in Ho Chi Minh City (southern Vietnam), Hanoi (northern Vietnam), and Da Nang City (central Vietnam) to attract more investments from global technology giants such as Amkor, Samsung, Hanwha Precision Machinery, Foxconn, LAM Research, Coherent, and Intel.

Among them, Samsung is the largest foreign investor in Vietnam. As of 2024, Samsung’s investment in Vietnam reached USD 23.2 billion, with revenue of USD 62.5 billion, of which USD 54.4 billion was sold to the world from Vietnam.

Some economically developed provinces, such as Dong Nai Province in the Southern Economic Zone, have also released a semiconductor industry development plan as part of their strategy to 2030. The plan focuses on the Long Thanh Concentrated Information Technology Park, prioritizing the attraction of enterprises in semiconductor product design, packaging, and testing—especially fabless semiconductor design, MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) dedicated chip production, and IoT (Internet of Things) chip fields. According to the provincial plan for 2021-2030, by 2050, Dong Nai Province will have 48 industrial parks, 1 high-tech zone, 1 information technology park, and 1 innovation zone.

Therefore, 2020 can be regarded as a “watershed” for Vietnam’s semiconductor industry. Before that, its development experienced ups and downs; after that, Vietnam established a special working group, determined to attract high-tech investment by providing more flexible customized incentives. Subsequently, Universal Scientific Industrial (USI), a subsidiary of ASE Group, invested USD 200 million to build a factory in Haiphong City; companies such as Samsung, ON Semiconductor, Renesas, Qualcomm, TI (Texas Instruments), and NXP also successively established factories or R&D centers in Vietnam.

In 2023, Samsung Electronics announced an additional investment of USD 920 million in its electronic component factory in Thai Nguyen, Vietnam; in September, Hanwha Precision Machinery, a South Korean chip packaging and memory product manufacturer, opened its first northern factory in Van Trung Industrial Park, Bac Giang Province; in October, Amkor Technology’s USD 1.6 billion semiconductor factory in Bac Giang Province began operations. If we also take into account Intel’s USD 1 billion investment in building a semiconductor packaging factory in Ho Chi Minh City in 2006, the industrial cluster effect of Vietnam’s semiconductor industry has initially emerged.

In terms of IC design, in 2023, Marvell Technology announced the establishment of a world-class semiconductor design center in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; Synopsys launched a semiconductor design and incubation center in cooperation with the Saigon High-Tech Park in Ho Chi Minh City. In December 2024, Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, received a high-level reception during his visit to Vietnam. Huang stated that NVIDIA will establish an AI R&D center and an AI data center in Vietnam, building Vietnam into NVIDIA’s “second home.”
Strengthening the Talent Development Strategy
According to the Ministry of Science and Technology of Vietnam, the country needs 5,000 to 10,000 semiconductor engineers every year, but the current training capacity meets only about 20% of this demand. This highlights that workforce development is a key factor for the country to maintain competitiveness in the semiconductor industry.

To address this, Vietnam’s Ministry of Planning and Investment is formulating the Proposal for Human Resource Development in the Semiconductor Industry, one of the core contents of which is to invest 26 trillion Vietnamese dong (including 17 trillion Vietnamese dong from the national budget and approximately 9 trillion Vietnamese dong from social funds) in semiconductor industry talent training. Specific measures include expanding the number of training institutions for the semiconductor industry and related industries to 200, investing in the construction of 4 shared semiconductor centers and 20 standard semiconductor training centers, etc.

Through the construction of these large-scale training systems, the Vietnamese government plans to train 50,000 engineers by 2030, including 15,000 design talents. The National Innovation Center has collaborated with enterprises such as Qorvo and Cadence to carry out training, and the first batch of 70 trainees has graduated and joined enterprises such as Marvell and Samsung.

At the same time, the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam has instructed universities and institutions to study the establishment of specialized units, focusing on cultivating talents in electronic-related fields such as semiconductors, AI, and cloud computing. Currently, 5 universities have added semiconductor and chip design courses; as more universities follow suit, a comprehensive training system for electronic professionals will gradually be built, solving the talent shortage problem at its source.

In addition, in regions such as Da Nang, individuals engaged in relevant fields such as experts and scientists are exempt from personal income tax on their salary income for 5 years. This greatly attracts local Vietnamese talents to engage in the electronic industry, promotes the agglomeration of domestic electronic enterprises in specific regions, and forms a highland for industrial development.
Conclusion
In general, Vietnam’s electronic industry is in a critical period of transitioning from an “assembly hub” to a “manufacturing and design hub.” Breakthroughs in foreign-funded semiconductor manufacturing and technological exploration by domestic enterprises together constitute the core driving force for the industry’s development. However, issues such as talent shortages, inadequate infrastructure, and technological dependence remain major obstacles on the path of development.

If Vietnam can effectively implement its policies and deepen international cooperation, it is expected to join the core circle of global semiconductor packaging, testing, and mature process manufacturing by 2030, becoming a “growth engine” for the electronic industry in Southeast Asia and occupying a more important position in the global electronic industry landscape.