“Vietnam wants to become the new Taiwan in the long term,” points out Dr. Stefan Laser, social scientist at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, referring to the boom in the chip industry in the country. Because Vietnam is considered politically stable and is strategically located by the sea, the West also has a vested interest in seeing the country become a stronger player in the chip industry. What is often sold to the outside world as a success story, however, does in fact entail a number of contradictions on closer inspection, as Stefan Laser points out in his research. Rubin, the science magazine of Ruhr University Bochum, reports on his work in the Collaborative Research Center Virtual Lifeworlds.

“There are many hopes and investments associated with the chip industry in Vietnam. But there’s also doubt as to how sustainable the whole thing really is,” says Stefan Laser, pointing out an example: In 2023, US President Joe Biden traveled to Vietnam to agree on a strategic partnership with the country. “He brought along a whole entourage of industry representatives. The company Intel then announced that it would build its second large plant in the country – and then backed out shortly afterwards.” Although it wasn’t publicly disclosed why, the media researched the issue and cited the lack of energy security as the reason.

Companies in the chip industry are subject to certain environmental commitments, which means that the proportion of renewables must increase. However, according to Laser, Vietnam doesn’t have sufficient grid stability.

Stefan Laser encounters controversy not only with regard to energy security, but also in many other areas. For example, Vietnam is planning to train and recruit 50,000 new engineers. They are to ensure that the country can also compete at the upper end of the value chain in future, for example in chip design. Some doubt whether it will be possible to recruit so many new skilled workers into the labor market. “There are concerns about brain drain,” says Stefan Laser. “Skilled workers might train in Vietnam, but then migrate to Taiwan or South Korea.”

To shed light on these and other controversies, Stefan Laser conducts extensive research on the ground in Vietnam. He monitors the media, talks to journalists, visits trade fairs to make contacts in the chip industry and keeps track of amendments to the laws that define the framework conditions for the sector.

He tells us in the science magazine Rubin about one of the unusual career paths he’s discovered in the process. “An interesting ecosystem forms around chip factories that seems almost grotesque,” concludes the social scientist.