HCL enters Vietnam, to employ 8,000 in new business unit

Information technology (IT) services firm HCL Technologies on Thursday announced its foray into Vietnam to expand its presence in the Southeast Asian region.

The firm, which began operations in Vietnam in July, said it expects to boost employment in the country.

In a separate statement on Wednesday, Vietnam’s ministry of information and communications (MIC) said that HCL plans to employ 8,000 employees in the country in the next four years for the local entity, called HCL Vietnam Company.

As per HCL’s statement, the company will hire 3,000 local university graduates and experienced professionals over the next three years, and will also organise a virtual job fair on December 19.

“We are very excited to begin our operations in the beautiful country of Vietnam… Vietnam and its skilled youth have the true potential to develop a robust IT industry, which is spearheading economic growth in the country,” Sanjay Gupta, corporate vice president at HCL, said.

The ministry added that the Noida headquartered company aims to turn Vietnam into its largest centre of Southeast Asia, with a plan to open a representative office in January 2021.

“Vietnam offers a friendly business environment and its rapidly growing IT and physical infrastructure is making it a favorable destination for global multinational companies to set up their global delivery centres here,” Sanh Chau Pham, ambassador of Vietnam to India said.

A key development strategy in Vietnam will be to provide the right skilling and platforms to train graduates for career opportunities in hi-tech domains, and provide them with the requisite exposure of working on global assignments, the statement said.

“Adopting a new education model with an online platform approach will accelerate upskilling and reskilling training for local resources. More talents to be equipped, more chances for them to work in technology companies all over the world and hence,” vice minister Phan Tam from Vietnam’s MIC, said.

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The $10 billion company, founded in 1976, employs 1,53,085 across 50 countries. 

It operates three business units -- IT and business services (ITBS), engineering and R&D services (ERS), and products & platforms (P&P) -- servicing industry verticals of financial services, manufacturing, technology and services, telecom and media, retail and CPG, life sciences, and healthcare and public services.

In the financial quarter ended September 2020, the company reported an 18.5% growth in profits, having signed 15 new transformational deals. Revenues in the period grew 6.1% to Rs 18,594 crore.