A Vietnamese high-ranking delegation on January 21 participated in a seminar with the theme "High-Tech Investment in Vietnam-Taking Off in the Smart Era", an event held at the 2025 World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.

Members of the delegation included Politburo member and Secretary of the HCM City Party Committee Nguyen Van Nen; Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung; and heads of ministries, branches and businesses from Vietnam.

At the event, representatives from Vietnam and domestic and international enterprises shared insights to discover new opportunities and promote investment cooperation in the time to come.

The discussion began with FPT Chairman Truong Gia Binh’s introductions about Vietnam’s great potential of attracting investment thanks to its high-tech strengths and comprehensive support from the Vietnamese government, together with national strategic directions in technology.

According to Binh, three crucial factors will help Vietnam become a leading nation in AI (artificial intelligence) and semiconductors.

First, it is a new Vietnam, a Vietnam that continues to prioritize growth creation, that changes its mindset from management to creation, from process control to result concern.

Second, Vietnam has chosen science and technology, particularly AI, semiconductors, and digital transformation, as key drivers in the upcoming period to achieve its double-digit growth goal. This is a requirement and desire of the entire political system. Leading Vietnamese technology corporations have also made commitments on what they will do to help Vietnam rise strongly in the new era.

Binh noted that with this strategy, Vietnam has cemented its firm position on the world’s technology map. From a nation primarily providing services to foreign businesses, Vietnam now, together with India, can earn $1 billion a year from software exports.

Currently, Vietnam has about 1 million IT (information technology) engineers and 500,000 software developers. NVIDIA has chosen Vietnam as its "second home" and has significantly invested here. Meanwhile, Vietnam is completing investments in AI infrastructure with newly launched AI factories in Vietnam and Japan.

Third, Vietnam has an advantage in high-quality human resources with its education program, in which AI and STEM are taught at all education levels.

At the events, representatives of foreign large economic groups noted the great potential of Vietnam in developing technologies, especially AI and energy. The groups committed to support Vietnam in technological infrastructure development and human resource preparation.

Sanjay Gupta, Google’s Asia-Pacific president, expressed his enthusiasm about Vietnam's AI future. According to Google research, AI could contribute nearly $80 billion annually to Vietnam's GDP from now until 2030.

Answering questions from foreign corporations, Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung said Vietnam is reforming its investment environment to become a safer, more efficient, and competitive destination compared to regional counterparts.

On behalf of Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, at the seminar, HCM City Party Committee Secretary Nguyen Van Nen praised the insights shared by delegates, and thanked businesses for choosing Vietnam as an investment destination.

He said Vietnam well understands that developing high technology is not only a necessity to improve productivity, quality and competitiveness of the national economy, but also a key to help Vietnam’s economy take off, becoming a modern industrialized country. High technology is also considered a foundation for Vietnam to build the knowledge-based economy, which strives for sustainable development.

In September 2024, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh signed a decision issuing the Vietnamese Semiconductor Industry Development Strategy by 2030, with a vision to 2050, under which Vietnam’s semiconductor industry development will experience three phases by 2030-2050.

In phase 1 (2024-2030): Vietnam will exploit geopolitical advantages and its human resources in the semiconductor industry to selectively attract FDI, and develop into one of the global semiconductor workforce hubs. Also in the phase, Vietnam will form foundational capabilities of the industry, including research, design, manufacturing, packaging, and testing.

Phase 2 (2030-2040): Vietnam will become one of the global semiconductor-electronics industry centers. During that time, it will develop a semiconductor and electronics industry together with Foreign Direct Investment.

Phase 3 (2040-2050): Vietnam will become one of the global leading countries in the semiconductor and electronics industry.

Vietnam expects to have at least 300 design companies, three chip manufacturing plants, and 20 semiconductor product packaging and testing plants.

Thai Khang