The Vietnam government is planning to set up a fab, following the establishment of a programme called Development of the IC industry of Ho Chi Minh City.

The programme envisions founding chip company start-up incubators, design and prototyping facilities and a fab.

By 2017, the programme expects to have an IC industry worth $100-150m a year and to have attracted over five multinational semi-conductor companies to Vietnam.

It also aims to provide education and training to some 2,000 engineers and technicians, and incubate 30 semiconductor and electronics businesses by 2017.

The programme follows a report from the Vietnam National Universitys IC Design Research and Education Centre (ICDREC) which says Vietnam could supply its own IC requirements.

According to the Vietnam ICT Whitebook, the revenues of Vietnams electronics and hardware industries rose from over $2.5bn in 2005 to $5.5bn in 2010.