Apple chief visits Vietnam amid supply-chain shift
American tech giant says it will boost spending on suppliers in the Southeast Asian country
Apple chief executive Tim Cook has started a two-day visit to Vietnam, as the American tech giant’s efforts to diversify its supply chain come into focus again just weeks after the CEO concluded a tour in the company’s key market of China.
Apple yesterday announced on its Vietnam website that it would “increase spending on suppliers” in the country, adding such expenditure had reached nearly 400 trillion Vietnamese dong (HK$125.1 billion) since 2019.
The pledge comes three weeks after Cook wrapped up his visit to the mainland, which remains Apple’s largest manufacturing base.
During his time on the mainland, Cook praised the country’s supply chain as being the most “critical” in the world and promised the company would keep investing in research and development, as well as in the supply chain.
He also attended the highlevel China Development Forum, the nation’s answer to the World Economic Forum’s summit in Davos, Switzerland, where he lauded the “huge contribution” Chinese suppliers hade made to the iPhone maker’s carbonneutral goals.
Despite Cook’s reassurance, some mainland internet users expressed their uneasiness about Apple shifting some of its manufacturing to countries such as Vietnam and India.
One Weibo user called “eddzccy” commented on a post about Cook’s Vietnam visit with a three-lemon emoji, which symbolises jealousy.
Another user named “Renkongzhineng” sarcastically referred to Cook as a “master of marketing”.
Vietnam has emerged in recent years as one of the most important manufacturing hubs for Apple, with suppliers including Luxshare Precision Industry, Goertek and Foxconn Technology Group, formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry, all having operations there.
The United States has strengthened its relationship with Vietnam amid growing trade and geopolitical tensions between Washington and Beijing.
In a visit to the Southeast Asian country last September, US President Joe Biden announced an elevated “comprehensive strategic partnership” with Vietnam.
Still, Apple has pursued a variety of initiatives in China, the world’s largest smartphone market, where iPhone sales fell by 24 per cent year on year in the first six weeks of the year, according to market consultancy Counterpoint.
The California-based company faced “stiff competition at the high end [of the market] from a resurgent Huawei [Technologies], while getting squeezed in the middle by aggressive pricing by the likes of Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi”, Counterpoint said.
Apple said last month it planned to expand its research centre in Shanghai and open a new laboratory in Shenzhen later this year.
It is also exploring a tie-up with Chinese internet search and artificial intelligence giant Baidu to install the latter’s Ernie chatbot on iPhones sold in the country, according to a report last month by The Wall Street Journal.