The US will support Vietnam to attract investment in semiconductor production and developing technical skills necessary to participate in semiconductor production, according to a US Department of State press release.
Of note in the state departments release is a reference to ‘building on Vietnam’s existing strengths in assembly, testing, and packaging’. In a White House fact sheet published last Saturday the same statement had a follow on sentence: “The effort will support the expansion of good jobs for the American middle class for work further up the semiconductor industry value chain.”
Reading between the lines it seems that the US sees Vietnam’s role in semi-conductor production in the final stages of the supply chain which requires only low-skilled. The high-skilled roles Vietnam is keen to develop, appear to be headed for the ‘American middle class’.