Mr.Kim Tea Hoon, Vice President in charge of the Procurement Center at Samsung Vietnam

Samsung Vietnam has implemented several collaboration programs with the Ministry of Industry and Trade to assist domestic supporting industry enterprises. Could you provide an overview of the results achieved?

Since 2015, we have worked with the Department of Industry under the Ministry of Industry and Trade to implement projects that help Vietnamese businesses enhance competitiveness. This includes consulting on production improvements, quality management, and building smart factory models, giving enterprises more opportunities to participate in the global supply chain. By the end of 2024, over 400 Vietnamese businesses had been surveyed, consulted, and guided in improving their production operations.

Businesses in these programs have seen clear results, with productivity rising 30 to 50%, defect rates significantly reduced, and gradual achievement of ISO and IATF standards for quality and production environment. Beyond supplying Samsung, many enterprises have expanded cooperation with other international corporations in electronics, mechanical engineering, packaging, and related fields.

Beyond production improvement programs, Samsung has also carried out many projects to train human resources and transfer technology to Vietnamese enterprises. Could you provide more details on these activities?

We consider human resource development and technology transfer as two key factors in building a sustainable foundation for Vietnam’s supporting industry.

Accordingly, we have partnered with the Ministry of Industry and Trade to implement several projects, including training Vietnamese consultant experts in production and quality improvement, training mold technicians, supporting consulting for enterprise process improvements, and collaborating on smart factory development.

Between 2018 and 2021, 379 enterprises received consulting support, and 406 consultant experts were trained. From 2020 to 2024, Samsung and the Ministry continued to train 209 mold technicians, forming a core workforce that enables Vietnamese businesses to be more self-reliant in component design and production.

Since 2022, we have supported the development of smart factory models for 80 Vietnamese enterprises and trained 123 consultant experts. All these projects are highly practical, lasting three to six months, allowing businesses to apply lessons directly to their operational and management processes.

During the implementation of these programs, what have been the biggest challenges for you and Vietnamese enterprises?

Most Vietnamese supporting industry enterprises are small or medium-sized, with limited financial capacity, making it difficult to invest in modern technology, machinery, or quality management systems that meet international standards.

In addition, there is a shortage of high-quality technical human resources, which limits the effective adoption of new technologies, especially in automation and digital transformation.

From the perspective of an FDI enterprise, we also see a significant gap between Vietnamese enterprises and global suppliers in technical standards. Therefore, we go beyond consulting by sending experts to work directly on factory floors, helping enterprises gradually improve and restructure production toward smart factory models. While challenges remain, it is encouraging that Vietnamese enterprises show a strong and growing willingness to learn and innovate.

With a long-term development vision, what strategies will Samsung Vietnam continue to implement to support Vietnamese supporting industry enterprises in the coming period?

In the near future, we will expand the scale and scope of our programs while continuously improving their quality, with a particular focus on digital transformation, production automation, and smart factory development for supporting industry enterprises.

We are also working with the Ministry of Industry and Trade to identify and select potential enterprises to participate in projects developing mobile phone components and high-precision technical parts.

We expect that, with close collaboration between the public and private sectors and the efforts of Vietnamese enterprises, the localization rate of electronics production in Vietnam will continue to rise, helping reduce trade deficits and strengthen Vietnam’s position in the global supply chain.

We are committed to continuing to invest resources, experts, technology, and international experience to help Vietnamese enterprises grow sustainably and expand globally.

Thank you very much!