Any enterprise in the supporting industry knows that to participate in the global supply chain, it requires not only determination, aspiration, and vision, but also many other supports such as capital, technology, human resources, etc. Besides the support of the government, banks, etc., each enterprise must constantly upgrade itself. Mr. Tran Ba Linh - General Director of Dien Quang High Technology Company Limited shared some information related to this field.
In recent years, the supporting industry sector has been increasingly prioritized and promoted by Ho Chi Minh City. In your opinion, how important is supporting industry to the city's development?
The supporting industry sector is almost all spearhead industries, related to electronics, mechanics, etc. These are extremely "hot" industries in recent years because the electronics industry is related to semiconductors, ICs, etc. These are the fields we are processing, ensuring the future of Vietnam's electronics industry.
The supporting industry plays an important role in the economic restructuring towards industrialization and modernization, helping to improve labor productivity, competitiveness, and added value, contributing to increasing the contribution of the processing and manufacturing industry in the entire industry.
Regarding Vietnam's electronics sector, why do you think it is still slow to develop?
In the fourth industrial revolution with digital transformation, the Electricity - Electronics industry has shown its leading importance. Electricity - Electronics is considered a key economic sector, dominating many other fields such as mechanics, electricity, plastics and chemicals, ... and strongly affecting the sustainable development of the country.
In Vietnam, the electronics industry has a history of more than 40 years, but so far it has only stopped at the level of exploiting services, assembling products with imported circuit boards and components. The reason why the electronics industry in Vietnam has developed slowly and has not been able to demonstrate its leading role in the country's economic development is due to the lack of proper investment in research and development of core technology platforms, especially the lack of specialized human resources in this industry.
Meanwhile, the demand for electronic components is increasing. To avoid dependence on components from a corporation or a company, the trend of countries is to promote the development of electrical and electronic component production or diversify supply sources from large corporations around the world.
Currently, many Vietnamese enterprises have been constantly changing their thinking, solutions, machinery, and human resources to aim for the common goal of the semiconductor industry.
Mr. Tran Ba Linh (red shirt in the middle) shares about the technology products that Dien Quang is researching and producing. Photo: Uyen Phuong
How is Dien Quang Company investing and implementing projects related to supporting industries, semiconductors, electronics, etc.?
Since 2007, Dien Quang has started to enter the field of supporting industry. However, at that time, it was only at the stage of self-production. During the development process, Dien Quang has carried out many investment activities such as building a high-tech Dien Quang factory, a research and development center, a lab and testing room in the high-tech park of Ho Chi Minh City.
Currently, Dien Quang is investing in developing its own supporting industry, OEM (original spare parts manufacturer). We have proactively equipped modern LED chip production lines with an estimated production scale of more than 150 million LED chips/year. Thanks to that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Dien Quang has not suffered a disruption in its supply chain, can still produce and fight the pandemic, and can even supply products according to partners' orders.
Up to now, Dien Quang has modern production lines and equipment capable of producing LED chips, electronic circuit boards and electrical and electronic equipment for many different industries such as medical, automotive, information technology and telecommunications... Dien Quang also participates in the production of highly difficult electronic devices such as tablets, laptops, computers...
Dien Quang is also ready to take the lead in the trend of the semiconductor industry. Accordingly, Dien Quang has prepared a team of personnel with R&D (research and development) engineers and a quality design team to research and develop products and equipment directly related to the semiconductor industry and high technology. In addition, Dien Quang has invested in modern machinery, equipment and production lines, capable of producing highly difficult electronic products. As long as any major partner places an order, Dien Quang is ready to receive product processing according to international quality standards.
Modern technology applied at Dien Quang Company. Photo: Uyen Phuong
As a company with many investments and innovations in the field of supporting industry, can you share the advantages and difficulties when businesses invest in this field?
The first advantage is that we do it to serve ourselves, without disrupting the supply chain. Especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, we have anticipated and proactively sold finished products and finished products related to supporting industries.
To invest properly in this field, we also encountered many difficulties. First is to choose the right technology and persistently pursue it; next is the available training services and high-quality human resources. Currently, there is no university that provides training related to this field. Most enterprises go abroad to train themselves, then return to serve their own company.
The next difficulty is infrastructure. We do not have the raw materials to create products with high intellectual content and quality. For example, to make an IC, an LED chip, all raw materials must be imported from abroad. In Vietnam, very few foreign enterprises and investors are interested in producing those materials domestically.
Many supporting industry enterprises believe that their products cannot find a market, so they are not interested in supporting industry. What is your opinion on this opinion?
I think this is partly true. At many conferences, there are large corporations investing in Vietnam, they also want to cooperate with domestic enterprises to make products and supplies for them such as buttons, screws, etc. We are not unable to do it, what we are lacking are standards for customers to accept.
What we lack is the foundation to make qualified, quality products for people to buy. This is the difficulty that almost every business encounters. To make those products and sell them to companies in their own country, Vietnamese businesses must focus on the quality and standards they set.
In order to support small and medium enterprises to participate in the global supply chain, what recommendations and proposals do you have for the supporting industry sector?
We need a lot of policies related to small and medium enterprises, which is capital. Currently, capital is what every startup needs because investing in supporting industries is very expensive. Especially to make products with high intellectual content for demanding partners, a lot of investment is required. If the enterprise does not invest or invests half-heartedly, it will be very difficult.
There is a situation where businesses buy and sell products from abroad to Vietnam at almost a dumping price, which is very dangerous for the domestic competitive environment. Therefore, there must be technical barriers to prevent imported products from competing with domestically produced products, in order to revive domestic production.
Currently, many businesses have access to support capital, but disbursement issues, procedural barriers, etc. are still difficult for businesses. It should be improved to support businesses in need. Banks need to quickly implement and quickly resolve the following procedures, so that businesses can borrow capital and invest immediately.
Thank you!
