Vietnamese President To Lam has pledged to expand the country’s semiconductor and artificial intelligence industries during meetings with major U.S. companies in New York, as the communist-ruled nation seeks more investment from technology and other U.S. firms.
Lam, on his first visit to the United States as Vietnamese president, is scheduled to meet with US President Joe Biden later on Wednesday.
Lam has held meetings with several U.S. companies, including technology companies Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Meta, and financial firms Blackstone (NYSE:BLK) and Warburg Pincus, according to photos of handshakes with company representatives posted on a Vietnamese government portal.
Lam, who also serves as general secretary of the Communist Party, Vietnam’s most powerful position, plans to meet Google later on Wednesday, a source familiar with his schedule said, confirming a Reuters report from last week.
In a meeting with Lam on Monday, Meta’s global affairs chief Nick Clegg shared plans to produce VR headsets in Vietnam, according to the Vietnamese government portal.
Meta, which has tens of millions of users on its Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) page, did not respond to requests for comment.
At a separate business forum, Lam signed cooperation agreements with U.S. companies in energy, artificial intelligence and data centers, the government said.
Other participants include representatives from technology company Amazon (NASDAQ:), payments company Visa (NYSE:), multinational consumer goods company Procter & Gamble (NYSE:), and energy company AES (NYSE:).
“Lam has made it very clear that his presidency and tenure as secretary-general will contribute to the development of the technology economy,” Ted Osius, president of the U.S.-Asia Business Council, the group that hosted the event, told Reuters.
In meetings with U.S. companies, Lam said Vietnam sees digital transformation as a driving force to move the country into a new era, according to the government portal.
“Developing the semiconductor and artificial intelligence industries is a strategic choice and priority,” Lam said.