Leading enterprises from the Republic of Korea (RoK) including Samsung Electronics, Naver and Revu Corporation have further promoted investment in research and development (R&D) centres in Viet Nam to fully tap high-quality and low-cost human resources.

A report released recently by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) said with stable economic growth, Viet Nam has continuously trained young R&D staff to a high level.

Viet Nam ranked second in the world in terms of software outsourcing for information technology development in 2020.

Meanwhile, the Viet Nam IT Market Report 2021 conducted by TopDev, a Vietnamese market research company, shows that the average salary of programmers with less than two years of experience in Viet Nam is at least 430,000 won (US$332.6) per month, and the salary for those with more than 10 years of experience is 3.27 million won (over $2,500).

Meanwhile, the average salary of a new employee working at a mid-range IT firm in the RoK is about 3.5 million won (over $2,700) per month.

Samsung Electronics has started construction of the largest R&D centre in Southeast Asia in Ha Noi, which is expected to be completed in 2022.

LG Electronics opened the LG Vehicle Component Solutions Development Centre Viet Nam in the central city of Da Nang in 2020. Naver and NCsoft have also established R&D organisations in Viet Nam.

Naver collaborated with Viet Nam's information technology research institutes, the Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology (PTIT) and the Ha Noi University of Science and Technology to set up an artificial intelligence research centre last year. Meanwhile, NCsoft is operating NC Viet Nam Visual Studio - an R&D agency focusing on graphics technology in HCM City. — VNS