Manager of the Trung Nam Electronics Manufacturing Service introduces a locally-made circuit board in Đà Nẵng. The city has been calling for investment from Japan in semiconductor production. — Photo courtesy of Trung Nam Group

ĐÀ NẴNG — The central city will offer the most favourable conditions and supportive policies for Japanese investors in semiconductor manufacturing, in hosting the moves of global supply chains as investment from Japan has played a key role in the city's growth.

Deputy Chairman of the city's People's Council Trần Phước Sơn stressed at an Invest Đà Nẵng promotion event in Fukuyama, Hiroshima, Japan.

In a meeting with representatives of Bingo Semiconductor Technology Promotion Association (BISTEC) and 50 businesses in the industry, Sơn said the city’s leadership always highly appreciated Japan as a key strategic partner contributing to the city’s socio-economic development.

“Đà Nẵng has been focusing on hi-tech and low carbon industries as well as environment-friendly and renewable energy-consumed manufacturing industries. We hope Japanese investors will see Đà Nẵng as a safe and ‘trustworthy’ destination for prolonged investment,” Sơn said.

He said Japan was a leading investor in Đà Nẵng, accounting for 25 per cent of the city’s overall investment source.

He also introduced the investment environment, infrastructure, and preferential policies for foreign investors at the city’s hi-tech and IT parks and industrial zones.

A report from the city’s investment promotion agency (IPA) unveiled that Japanese investment made an 11.6 per cent share of the city’s Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP), and contributed 9.4 per cent to the added value of Đà Nẵng.

Japanese investors poured US$1.04 billion into 230 projects, making it top among 40 foreign direct investment (FDI) sources in the city.

According to IPA, Đà Nãng would offer free land-rent tax for 50 years for supportive and software industries projects, while a $130 million investment project in the city’s hi-tech park will enjoy a 10 per cent corporate tax for a 30-year term.

Đà Nẵng and Japan had built up a good co-operation in human resource training in IT as 13,000 graduated students, 800 of which were IT engineers, had been sent from central Việt Nam to Japan in the last eight years.

A worker checks a circuit board at an electronics production factory at Đà Nẵng's Hi-Tech Park. The city is preparing an investment wave in semiconductor industry from Japan. — Photo courtesy of Quang Huy

A Japanese technology company, Pasona Tech Việt Nam, which built an Information Technology (IT) LAB in Đà Nẵng for training human resources in digital transformation needs, has employed 500 qualified students for the Japanese market, IPA said.

Nine provinces and cities – Yokohama, Nagasaki, Chiba, Kawasaki, Shizuoka, Fukuoka, Izumisano, Kisarazu, Osaka – and 128 businesses from Japan have also agreed to employ qualified students from Đà Nẵng to work and study in Japan.

The city, which has 1,900 businesses and 44,000 manpower in Information and Communications Technology (ICT), earned $132 million turnover from software exports in 2022.

Japan, the US, and Taiwan are major export markets for the city’s software with a 36 per cent share, while the EU accounted for 16 per cent. Korea has emerged as a new export market for the software, a report from the city’s Information and Communications Department said.

The 5.9ha FPT Complex, invested in by FPT Group, will offer a working space for 10,000 IT engineers and manpower in 2030.

Trung Nam Group is building 23 surface-mount technology (SMT) factories and R&D zones at the Đà Nẵng Information Technology Park – the third national IT-centralised zone and the first in central Việt Nam's 'Silicon Valley’ – to draw investment from the US, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore. — VNS