According to the article, there are about 1,000 R&D employees of automotive electronics and electronic equipment working at R&D subsidiaries of LG Electronics Vietnam in Hanoi and the central city of Da Nang, including only six Korean staff.
In 2019, the number of R&D personnel of LG in Vietnam totaled 200, but by January 2023, a R&D department of the firm with about 750 employees was splited into an independent unit.
The article said Vietnam's R&D competitiveness benefits from changes in the Government’s policies.
The Vietnamese Government aims to go beyond the previous “Made in Vietnam” model, which was limited to be a hired processing facility, to become a manufacturing centre with its own technology and production capacity, and stepped up efforts to promote the information and communications technology (ICT) sector.
Domestic universities have recently focused on training engineers specialising in information technology (IT).
Following this trend, the presence of R&D centre of LG Electronics Vietnam is also growing stronger. The role of Vietnamese developers, who are mainly responsible for developing and testing basic electronic functions by analysing orders from automakers, has been expanded to the design of core functions.
Jeong Seung-min, director of the R&D centre of LG Electronics Vietnam - said that the establishment is responsible for developing software related to LG's automotive electrical and electronic equipment.
Initially, LG’s research facilities in Vietnam could carry out only 20% of the R&D process, but now they can carry out up to 60% and are expected to increase in the near future.
