Export demand a boon for Vietnam provinces, pre-built factories

Supply chains for Samsung, Lazada push trade to second-tier industrial zones

An audio parts factory outside Hanoi. Foreign manufacturers are moving beyond big cities, distributing the fruits of trade more evenly around Vietnam. (Photo by Lien Hoang)

LIEN HOANG, Nikkei staff writer

September 2, 2022 12:32 JST

HO CHI MINH CITY -- Leafy jungles are turning into concrete jungles in Vietnam as suppliers to the likes of Samsung and Walmart move into ready-built factories and second-tier provinces after prime real estate was scooped up in an earlier wave of supply-chain relocations.

Among 20 top cities and provinces, Vietnam's foreign direct investment from 2016 to 2021 more than doubled in just five places -- all of them second-tier provinces and a sign that such industrial investment is reaching beyond greater Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The five provinces include Ha Nam, home to Apple supplier Seoul Semiconductor, and Bac Giang, a manufacturing hotspot for Samsung.