Boeing’s supply chain development director for Southeast Asia, Maxime Dourdan, told a forum Wednesday that it was encouraging its tier 1 and 2 suppliers in Korea and Japan to consider utilising Vietnamese suppliers for tier 3 and 4 parts and components, The Investor is reporting.
Eds note: The timing on this is interesting in that Vietnam has actively been trying to climb the manufacturing value chain for sometime now but hasn’t got very far. By coincidence (?) Vietnamese carriers Vietnam Airlines and Vietjet both signed deals earlier this week to buy Boeing aircraft while the President of the United States was in the country looking to upgrade the strategic partnership between the US and Vietnam. It feels very much like all of these things may be connected.