Why did Amkor choose Vietnam as the world’s largest semiconductor production hub?

    

    
 Special conditions are met
    

    PV Tien Phong exchanged with Vice Chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee of Bac Ninh Vuong Quoc Tuan – shared that the locality has met the “special” conditions of Amkor Group. First of all, Bac Ninh has a convenient location, close to the airport and seaport, attractive investment environment. The infrastructure of Bac Ninh province is particularly favorable. Bac Ninh people have a tradition of hard work, intelligence, and creativity.

Mr. Tuan believes that an important reason for Amkor Group to choose to invest in Bac Ninh is that the province has a favorable electronic industry ecosystem for the development of semiconductor production. During the process of studying the investment environment of Amkor Group, Bac Ninh province conducted negotiations day and night with the corporation, even during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We have taken every measure to invite Amkor Group to directly visit Bac Ninh province to inspect the infrastructure and make investment decisions, creating the most favorable conditions for the corporation to understand policies, support mechanisms, and incentives according to the law and regulations of the State,” Mr. Tuan said.

According to Mr. Tuan, Bac Ninh province meets the “special” requirements for infrastructure so that Amkor Group can immediately deploy the project, such as providing a dual power system, a clean water system with a capacity of 18,000 m3/day and night, nitrogen gas to ensure production, and environmental treatment conditions.

During the project implementation, Bac Ninh province creates favorable conditions to support Amkor Group in working with central ministries and agencies, reducing administrative procedures by 1/3 in terms of time.

“Leaders of Amkor Technology Vietnam Co., Ltd. said that the project of Amkor Group in Bac Ninh is being implemented at the fastest pace among the group’s projects worldwide. All administrative procedures are reduced to 1/3 of the time. Administrative procedures are done very professionally by Bac Ninh province. Bac Ninh has the best infrastructure in Southeast Asia,” Mr. Tuan shared.

Mr. Tuan emphasized that the operation of Amkor Group’s factory in Bac Ninh for production, assembly, and testing of semiconductor materials and equipment is an important milestone for Bac Ninh province to officially appear on the world map of semiconductor component production.

“This is a new driving force in the development of high-tech industry in Bac Ninh province in the coming years, thereby creating effects and spreading to attract major investors globally, making Bac Ninh become one of the new centers for semiconductor chip production in the world,” Mr. Tuan commented.

Mr. Tuan further stated that in order to attract investment in the semiconductor industry, Bac Ninh province has identified the key task of training high-quality human resources. The Provincial People’s Council of Bac Ninh has issued a resolution to support tuition fees for students studying at colleges and universities on the province’s territory, creating the effectiveness of training human resources, especially high-tech and semiconductor human resources. In the future, the Provincial People’s Council of Bac Ninh will continue to issue resolutions on developing human resources to serve high technology and semiconductors.

 
  Important semiconductor production hub
 

    In an exchange with PV Tien Phong, Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Tran Thuat – Deputy Director of the Nano and Energy Center, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Hanoi National University – commented that Amkor’s choice of Bac Ninh to set up a factory could be based on 3 important reasons: Bac Ninh in the current semiconductor value chain, Bac Ninh’s strategic geographical location, future success, and development.

    According to Mr. Thuat, Bac Ninh is a province with many developed industrial parks and very large foreign direct investment (FDI) projects, including Samsung’s manufacturing plants. After the semiconductor components are packaged, they will need to be used in end devices, including smartphones or displays. Bac Ninh already has two Samsung factories along with supporting industrial plants that provide various input materials for the semiconductor industry. Therefore, choosing Bac Ninh is almost inevitable for Amkor.

Mr. Thuat believes that Bac Ninh’s geographical location can be said to be unique. Bac Ninh borders Hanoi, Hai Duong, Hung Yen, and Bac Giang provinces, and it is also very convenient to reach Thai Nguyen via National Highway 3. If we don’t count Hanoi, Bac Ninh is almost in the center position of the major industrial parks. As long as the transportation is ensured, Bac Ninh’s location is ideal for every investor, including investments in the semiconductor packaging industry, especially attracting high-quality human resources.

    “The future development of Bac Ninh itself and the surrounding provinces is very good. In the context of political changes, the semiconductor industry is also affected, however, the attention of other countries in the world, especially the US, to Vietnam is an important factor that makes the potential development of the semiconductor industry in the near future greater than ever”, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Tran Thuat shared.

    Previously, at the inauguration ceremony of the factory in Bac Ninh, Ms. Susan Y. Kim – Vice Chairman of Amkor Technology Group – affirmed that the development factory of Amkor in Bac Ninh is in the group’s business strategy plan. Bac Ninh Amkor will become an important hub, a pillar in Amkor Group’s network of activities and sustainable development in the global semiconductor field in the coming time and will create favorable conditions for the formation and development of a semiconductor ecosystem in Vietnam.