American Companies Eye Vietnam for Semiconductor and Mineral Mining Investments.

The event was organized in Ho Chi Minh City by the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam in coordination with the American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (AmCham) and the governments of Oregon and Colorado (USA).

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of Vietnam Do Thang Hai spoke at the Forum.

At the Forum, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of Vietnam Do Thang Hai emphasized the rapidly changing and complex global contexts that lead to unprecedented challenges. For example, the strong development of science and technology as well as the impacts of climate change, natural disasters, epidemics, and supply chain disruptions are setting new requirements for economic-trade-investment cooperation between countries.

Hai shared that, in the first months of 2023, the difficult economic situation and high inflation rate in the United States caused the purchasing power of consumer goods to decrease significantly. On the other hand, the high-interest rates, cyclical factors, and large inventory reserves also caused Vietnam’s exports to the United States to decrease in the same period.

However, this decrease is temporary and not a major trend in the near future. Exports have grown again in recent months. The US Central Bank is reaching the final stage of its interest rate hike cycle. This helps US consumer purchasing power and confidence increase again. Vietnam’s major export products such as textiles, furniture, footwear, electronics… continue to recover with positive export growth rates.

Also, Vietnam has been going through a strong transformation to become a major global manufacturing center. Vietnamese enterprises have produced many products with diversity, competitive prices, and higher quality. After the pandemic as well as recent geopolitical and economic instability, many corporations, retail and wholesale distribution channels are promoting diversification strategies to ensure sustainable supply. They have chosen Vietnam as one of the strategic locations in the global supply chain, which renders great potential. However, seizing this opportunity will also require great efforts from the local manufacturing and export businesses.

The event was organized in Ho Chi Minh City by the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam in coordination with the American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (AmCham) and the governments of Oregon and Colorado (USA) on November 21.

According to the Vietnamese Deputy Minister, the recent upgrade in the Vietnam – US partnership will create unprecedented opportunities to launch new, breakthrough areas of cooperation and build internal resources. Thereby, it will help Vietnam to earn its position in the global value chains, especially in supplying raw materials, components, and equipment for the energy industry, and aviation. There is also much potential in some areas like the digital economy, semiconductor ecosystem, and applications of artificial intelligence.

Representative of the US delegation, US Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City Susan Burns also affirmed that US companies in many fields are targeting the Vietnamese market, especially the fields of semiconductor investment and mineral mining. Currently, the US government has developed a detailed action plan to increase the resilience of its semiconductor industry.

In particular, the US Government has established a fund to support investment in developing the global semiconductor ecosystem with a value of US $100 million. Within this framework, the United States will invest in capacity building in Vietnam as a basis for building and promoting the development of the local semiconductor and mining industry ecosystem. As for the mining sector, Vietnam is considered to be the second largest rare earth reserves after China. Therefore, the United States will work with Vietnam to diversify the supply chain and attract US investment to mine this rare earth.