South Korea’s KP Aero Industries intends to spend US$20 million on a new assembly plant in Vietnam, Reuters is reporting. Earlier reports from state media suggest the new factory will be in Danang in central Vietnam and cover 20,000 square metres.
Whereas this announcement has been met with broad elation in the Vietnamese press–another feather in Vietnam’s manufacturing hat–it’s worth noting that the factory, according to Reuters, ‘assemble components’ for Boeing.
This distinction is important. Big announcements like this are often touted as a boon for Vietnam’s manufacturing industry, however, final assembly is generally low-skilled work that can be done anywhere–it probably wouldn’t be particularly newsworthy if the Boeing name wasn’t attached to it.