Intel Leads Where Others Will Surely Follow

Vietnam-Intel relations have been warming up over the last few months.

In February, Intel announced that it would spend $300 million building a chip assembly and testing plant outside Ho Chi Minh City, an investment that represented the largest US-firm investment in the communist-ruled country to date.

Last month, it was announced that Intel would be working with the United Nations Development Programme and the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to implement a pilot project that will provide computer systems to thirteen telecenters in ten rural provinces of Vietnam. The aim: to give Vietnamese farmers access to pricing and market information, as well as agricultural news:

For Intel, the project is part of its “World Ahead” programme which supports initiatives to speed access to technology and education for people in the world’s developing communities. The Intel - powered Community PC, brings technology to remote communities where issues like weather and unreliable power compromises regular computers.

And when Vietnam was finally admitted as the 150th member-state of the World Trade Organisation last week, Intel announced that it would be tripling its initial chip-assumbley plant investment: committing $1 billion to build not one, but two plants outside of Ho Chi Minh City, which combined are expected to create 4000 jobs.

According to Nhan Dan online:

It is already the largest single US investment in the country since the Vietnam War ended in 1975.

The BBC reports that Vietnam’s strong performing economy is second only to China, and expected to grow 7.8% in 2006.

As Vietnam begins to open up to foreign investment, Intel, it seems, is already ahead of the game.