Electronics exports boom driven by FDI

Vietnam’s electronics exports have been booming due to consistent foreign investment in the sector, HSBC said in a recent report.

The country’s exports rose by 50.5 percent year-on-year in January, with the primary driver of growth being Samsung’s recently released Galaxy S21 smartphone.

Electronics exports last year were a record $96 billion, or a third of the country’s total exports.

It attributed the rapid rise to Samsung’s investments since 2008. The South Korean company now has six plants in Vietnam.

The country has also emerged as a growing supplier of chips with over 11 percent of the global market share in 2019 after growing at 300 percent that year.

Its increasing production of computers has also supported chip production.

U.S. company Intel set up a $1-billion chip assembly and testing facility in 2006, and in January 2021 reportedly injected another $475 million to manufacture 5G products and core processors.

U.S. tech giant Apple has been producing Airpods since May 2020, and is likely to start producing iPads as early as mid-2021.

Foxconn, a key supplier for Apple, received a license in January to build a $270-million plant in the northern province of Bac Giang. The Taiwanese contract manufacturer has so far invested $1.5 billion in Vietnam.

Vietnam’s competitive policies will continue to attract quality FDI, which is crucial in helping the country move up the value chain.

The country has to improve labor productivity through better education and vocational training. The other priority is improving infrastructure, said the report.