Jeffrey Goss, Vice President of Arizona State University (left), and Võ Xuân Hoài, Deputy Director of the National Innovation Centre, in the signing ceremony. — Photo courtesy of NIC

The National Innovation Centre (NIC), under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, on Tuesday signed two Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with Arizona State University (ASU) and Cadence Design Systems (Nasdaq: CDNS) to establish cooperation mechanism between the two sides in the fields of semiconductor microelectronics.

Accordingly, Jeffrey Goss, Vice President of Arizona State University, signed an MoU with Võ Xuân Hoài, NIC’s Deputy Director, on supporting the Vietnamese organisation in building up the infrastructure for the IC design incubation centre at Hoà Lạc High-Tech Park in Hà Nội. ASU and NIC will collaborate with educational institutions in Việt Nam for training and research exchanges on semiconductors. ASU also built partnerships with organisations and businesses in the semiconductor industry globally and sought financing sources to develop the Vietnamese industry's workforce capacities.

To startups, both sides jointly explore opportunities to link bilaterally the ASU Innovation Zones across Phoenix, AZ with the NIC in Hà Nội to foster US and Vietnamese start-up and innovation semiconductor ecosystems.

On the same day, Cadence Design Systems, a leading US company in electronic system design, and NIC also announced a new programme aimed at accelerating IC design innovation in Việt Nam.

NIC will provide Việt Nam universities, training centres, and start-up companies with the technology and education required to design and develop products for the fast-growing, local semiconductor and electronics ecosystem. Meanwhile, Cadence will provide access to its tools to academic institutes selected by NIC, providing students with an opportunity to gain real-world experience creating innovative IC designs. — VNS