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Vietnam's chip ambitions face power, skills and construction hurdles

A delayed Hanoi factory anchors a broader report on Vietnam's effort to move from hosting foreign manufacturers to producing its own semiconductors.

Channel: KBS News ·

South KoreaStory of November 2, 2026Trari Newsroom

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KBS News: The news division of KBS, South Korea's public broadcaster. 3.7M subscribers and 12B views.

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0:23Viettel's Hanoi chip factory is introduced with a target of trial production by the end of 2027.
1:04Park explains Vietnam's strategy of attracting advanced industries and sourcing more components locally.
2:08Administrative mergers and government restructuring form part of the push to support economic development.
5:30Experts identify power shortages, logistics bottlenecks and limited skilled labor as obstacles to industrial growth.
7:14The studio segment cites Reuters reporting that construction delays threaten the factory's production timetable.
7:38The report describes a weed-covered site and an unsigned contract for key ASML equipment.

Vietnam wants to make the chips, not simply host the companies that use them. But a planned semiconductor factory in Hanoi illustrates the distance between that ambition and production: the site remains covered in weeds, and essential equipment has yet to be secured, according to the report.

South Korea's Korean Broadcasting System (KBS News) examines that gap through a wider look at Vietnam's industrial reforms, before turning to a Reuters report on delays at state-owned telecommunications group Viettel's factory. The broadcaster says the difficulties put its target of trial production by the end of 2027 in doubt.

The project represents a move beyond the foreign-owned manufacturing operations, including Samsung's, that have helped establish Vietnam as an electronics production base. Research professor Park Jae-myeong, of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, describes a strategy of attracting advanced industries while increasing the share of components sourced locally. The aim is to become a central industrial hub rather than remain a subcontracting base.

The report places that strategy alongside administrative mergers, a leaner government structure, anti-corruption measures and large infrastructure projects. It shows speeches by Tô Lâm, Vietnam's Communist Party general secretary and president, as part of this reform drive.

But Park and Oh Ha-na, a professor at Cyber Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, identify constraints that organizational reform alone cannot resolve: power shortages, congested logistics and a shortage of skilled workers. Their broader question is whether Vietnam can turn manufacturing-led growth into the productivity needed for a high-income economy.

In its closing segment, the broadcaster cites Reuters on Viettel's limited experience building semiconductor factories and administrative difficulties obtaining government funding. It also reports that a contract for key ASML equipment has not been signed. The Dutch company makes lithography machines used to print intricate circuit patterns onto chips, placing equipment procurement alongside electricity and expertise on the project's unfinished checklist.

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