Business

Local electronics manufacturers are switching from household products to specialized industrial ones to adapt to the changing competition landscape.

Le Ngoc Son, chairman of the Vietnam Electronics Enterprise Association, said that after many firms assembling TV sets and other audio-visual equipment had to shut down business due to the tougher competition heralded by Vietnam’s accession into the WTO, many are restructuring production for survival.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a trade exchange between Vietnamese and South Korean electronic companies held in HCMC last week, Son said a number of industry players had shifted to producing specialized electronic equipment for the medical and other industrial sectors.

Son cited his business, the Vietnam Electronic and Information Technology Corporation where he serves as chairman, as an example.

According to Son, foreign enterprises including Samsung make up about 90 per cent of the local electronics industry while local counterparts mainly process and assemble household products.

Local companies are facing the grim reality that they are not as able to produce high-tech electronic products as Korean rivals while it is difficult to compete with cheap low-tech Chinese products.

Therefore, what they need to do now is to change their production strategies step by step and actively look for opportunities to join the global supply chain in industrial sectors, Son said.

Son noted the local electronics sector had seen the keen interest of Japanese and South Korean investors, adding the cooperation with the latter offers the local industry bigger chances.

It is because South Korean businesses tend to swiftly change designs and most of them are small and medium-sized enterprises like Vietnamese counterparts, he said.

Seok Jun Jang of the Korea Electronics Association (KEA) said his nation’s investors in the electronics sector had turned to Vietnam as the next destination following China.

Some companies in the 10-member delegation to Vietnam this time intended to invest in sound, camera, radio and television areas in Vietnam, he said.