With a view to becoming Vietnam’s leading manufacturing centre of electronic products, the northern province of Bac Ninh has taken a lot of concerted and flexible measures, focusing on high-value segments such as smartphones, electronic devices, and components.

With the presence of three factories of Samsung – the Republic of Korea’s manufacturing conglomerate – whose total investment nears 10 billion USD at Yen Phong Industrial Park, Bac Ninh has risen to the top position in Vietnam in terms of industrial production scale, and become the largest electronics industrial manufacturing centre in Southeast Asia.

After more than 25 years of the re-establishment of the province, the electronics sector now accounts for 79.3% of the locality’s industrial production, and becomes a main contributor to its economic growth.

Today, the transformation of the economic structure from low-value industrial production and handicrafts to high-tech industry is posing many challenges for industry development.

To enhance Bac Ninh's position in the value chain of electronic products, the province continues to focus on shifting production to high-value products such as smart phones and wearables, display and electronic components by stepping up research and development of electronic products, and expanding the supply chain through the production of electronics materials.

According to economists, the production of smartphones and smart wearables has a lot of potential, with the annual growth rate in the 2020-2025 period expected to reach 7.9%.

Bac Ninh already has the necessary advantages and supporting factors for the production of smart phones and wearables, including facilities and land at industrial zones, a skilled workforce, and preferential mechanisms and policies for the operation of enterprises, and supply chains formed under FDI projects of global brands such as Samsung, Canon, and Foxconn.

In addition, Bac Ninh is still a competitive destination in terms of costs such as those on labour, land, utility services and transportation, in comparison to regional and international ones. Therefore, the development of the electronics industry, particularly the expansion of the production of smartphones and wearables, is forecast to continue creating a large number of high-income jobs for locals.

Bac Ninh is also prioritising the production of semiconductor devices, which has an expected annual growth rate of about 6.9% in the 2020-2025 period. The province has a high demand for semiconductor devices and is capable of building a value chain by attracting Amkor Group to invest in Yen Phong II-C Industrial Park, with a total amount of up to 1.6 billion USD.

To ensure sustainable development, Bac Ninh has carefully reviewed, evaluated and appraised projects in the electronics sector, implemented policies to attract more investments, stepped up research and development activities, digital transformation and administrative reform, improved the business and investment environment, and promoted start-ups and innovation.

Priority will be given to developing infrastructure for industrial development, and expanding investment promotion in the electricity, electronics and supporting industries, capable of deeply participating in the global production network, with high spillover effects to other economic sectors.

Bac Ninh will also call on large domestic corporations and enterprises as well as multinationals from Japan, the US, the European Union, the Republic of Korea and China’s Taiwan to pour capital into the locality, encouraging investment cooperation between domestic and foreign enterprises. At the same time, the province will make the most of the advantages of regional linkages to accelerate its development to turn Bac Ninh into a driving force for the development of the northern region and the whole country.

The northern province will also continue carrying out programmes related to supporting industry development, industrial promotion, and competitiveness improvement./.