Card, driver giant enters Vietnam
HO CHI MINH CITY - U.S. card and driver giant SanDisk Corp. yesterday marked its official entry into Vietnam and disclosed a plan to set up a retail network here. At a function held in HCMC to mark its Vietnam debut, SanDisk showcased an array of its latest high-capacity, flash memory-based products.
“Solid economic and infrastructure growth creates a tremendous market opportunity for SanDisk in Vietnam,” said Gavin Wu, managing director of the company in Asia Pacific. Wu announced FPT Corp. and Ingram Micro as the distributors of its products in Vietnam as part of the company’s strategy to penetrate the market.
He told reporters that FPT Corp. was a leading Vietnamese distributor of IT products and mobile phones while Ingram Micro was the world’s leading wholesaler of technology goods.
Wu said FPT Corp. would distribute SanDisk’s series of mobile phone cards while Ingram Micro would focus on the company’s leading USB flash drives, high-performance cards for mobile and digital imaging, and Sansa MP3 players.
Vietnam has experienced a boom in broadband Internet services and cities like Hanoi and HCMC have up to 90% Wi-Fi penetration, creating market demand for portable storage solutions and increased memory capacity for mobile devices.
Therefore, SanDisk aims to leverage its new relationships with FPT Corp. and Ingram Micro to better reach Vietnam’s growing consumer market of 23 million mobile phone and 17.8 million Internet users.
SanDisk will launch a marketing campaign across Vietnam to promote its products to Vietnamese customers in the market of some 85 million people. Wu confirmed SanDisk did not have any plan at the moment to build a factory in Vietnam.
By Mong Binh - The Saigon times - December 11, 2007
|