Ho Chi Minh City licenses two integrated circuit projects
Wednesday, January 14, 2015, 11:53 GMT+7
An investment license has been granted to two integrated circuit projects to be implemented at the Saigon Hi-Tech Park (SHTP), a hub for high technology enterprises in Ho Chi Minh City.
The developers of both of the projects, the United Vietnam Photonic Company (UVP) and Saigon Semiconductor Technology Inc. (SSTI), are 100 percent Vietnamese-invested firms, according to the SHTP management board.
SSTI will set up an integrated circuit manufacturing plant, a research and development center, and a multi-function experimental facility on a two-hectare land plot inside the park.
The last facility will conduct research on developing energy-saving products such as light-emitting diodes and solar cells.
The total investment for the SSTI project is more than US$257 million.
Another name for a chip, an integrated circuit is a small electronic device made out of a semiconductor material.
SSTI is a semiconductor company formed in 2014, according to its website. The start-up is establishing facilities that manufacture, assemble, and test the GaAs compound.
GaAs is the chemical formula for gallium arsenide, a semiconductor compound used in some diode, field-effect transistor, and integrated circuits.
Le Hoai Quoc, head of the SHTP management board, said the park is focusing on attracting investment in the fields of semiconductors and chipmaking.
The management board is cooperating with investors in Silicon Valley in the U.S. to lure investment for the SHTP, he added.
In mid-2012, the Ho Chi Minh City administration initiated a program to develop an integrated circuit industry in the 2013-2020 period, according to The Saigon Times Online.
The municipal administration also set a target of raking in $100-150 million in revenue from the industry by 2017 and having 2,000 newly-trained engineers and technicians as well as 30 new chipmakers.
A VND6.6 trillion ($314.2 million) project to set up an integrated circuit making plant at the SHTP by the Saigon Industry Corporation had been expected to be the first under the program, but no investment license has been issued to it.
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