Apple CEO Tim Cook Met With Prime Minister of Vietnam to Discuss Manufacturing

Apple CEO Tim Cook this week met with Vietnam Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh at the Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California, where the two reportedly discussed trade, investment, and finance.

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According to Vietnamese news site SGGP (via iMore), Chinh said that the Vietnamese Government wants to create a "fair, transparent, and market-based business environment" to enable U.S. firms and investors to gain ground in Vietnam.

Vietnam has 31 companies that employ 160,000 workers that are producing and assembling electronic parts and equipment for Apple products, and Chinh asked Cook to step up Apple's business activities in Vietnam.

Cook in turn thanked Vietnam for creating a "favorable business environment for Apple's operations," and he told Chinh that Apple does indeed want to extend its supply chain in the country.

Over the course of the past couple years, reports have suggested that Apple is shifting more of its production to countries like Vietnam and India in order to diversify its supply chain and manufacture more products outside of China. Apple has started assembling some AirPods Pro, iPads, and HomePod mini devices in Vietnam.

Apple supplier Foxconn in January 2021 was granted a license to create a $270 million plant in Vietnam after Apple asked the company to move some iPad and MacBook assembly from China to Vietnam.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Top Rated Comments

now i see it Avatar
14 months ago
Designed in California. Manufactured anywhere but the USA
Score: 31 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TheYayAreaLiving ?️ Avatar
14 months ago
At this point. Any country is better than China. Go ??
Score: 31 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Sedulous Avatar
14 months ago
Vietnam has a totally different vibe than China. Optimism instead of animosity.
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
bumpylumpy Avatar
14 months ago

Designed in California. Manufactured anywhere but the USA
Well, given that Apple can't even get their staff to work in their own beautiful offices in California, I suspect getting manufacturing here is total non-starter.
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Mr. Dee Avatar
14 months ago
I encourage it, it just makes so much sense. As China moves out of developing country status and a larger middle class is created, the cost manufacturing and finding the labor to do it is gonna become higher. India and Vietnam will benefit from this. Hopefully Africa can get some of the love too since so many rare earth minerals are sourced from there.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
anthogag Avatar
14 months ago
If Western companies can move out of Russia, Apple can significantly reduce its reliance on China. ?
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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