Huawei's Globalization Path and Its Implications for Vietnam's Electronics Manufacturing Industry.

In the global technology manufacturing competition landscape, Huawei started from a small office in Shenzhen and grew into a technology giant covering over 170 countries. Its "dual-engine model of self-reliant innovation and global supply chain" provides a critical benchmark for Vietnam to break free from "reliance on OEM."Core of Huawei's Experience: Long-term high-intensity R&D investment (R&D expenditure reached CNY 179.7 billion in 2024, accounting for 20.8% of revenue, with cumulative investment exceeding CNY 1.249 trillion in the past decade). Breakthroughs were made in technological monopolies in areas such as 5G patents and chip design. The supply chain was localized and globalized in a synergistic manner, building a resilient network that ensures both autonomous control and flexible responsiveness to regional needs. For instance, Huawei initially integrated domestic supply chains, later established a global collaborative manufacturing system, and enhanced its voice by participating in international standard setting and co-building innovation centers.

Vietnam's Industrial Status: Leveraging labor cost advantages and policy dividends, the electronics industry has become a pillar of Vietnam's economy (export value reached USD 101.9 billion in 2025, accounting for 22.6% of the country's total exports). However, the "foreign-capital dominance and weak local supporting industries" problem is prominent. Local enterprises are mostly concentrated in low-value-added assembly links, with core technologies and components highly dependent on imports (import value reached USD 107.05 billion in 2024), indicating significant supply chain vulnerability.

Inspirations and Pathways: Vietnam can learn from Huawei's "dual-track strategy of self-reliant innovation and global supply chain" to promote local enterprises to increase R&D investment and extend into high-value links such as design and R&D. Relying on existing global supply chain layout opportunities, Vietnam can develop local supporting industries and increase the proportion of local component procurement. This not only meets tariff preferences for origin certification but also enhances risk resilience, which is highly aligned with the directions of Vietnam's "Electronics Industry Development Strategy 2030" and "Semiconductor Industry 2030 Strategy."

Key Challenges and Responses: The shortage of STEM talents (with only about 6,000 semiconductor engineers and an annual demand gap of 5,000-10,000) is the core bottleneck. However, Vietnam has 6 million skilled laborers and a human capital index among the top in the Asia-Pacific region, similar to Huawei's initial demographic dividend advantage. By increasing investment in education, implementing the plan to train 50,000 semiconductor engineers by 2030, and building a research and training system through enterprise-university collaboration, Vietnam can transform its labor quantity advantage into quality advantage to support industrial upgrading.

Huawei's experience is not a direct copy template but provides the idea of "self-reliant innovation as the root and open cooperation as the wing." If Vietnam can combine its local labor advantages with Huawei-style innovation and supply chain thinking, it is expected to break free from "reliance on OEM" and achieve a leap from "global processing workshop" to "innovation highland."