Outside a former Nokia phone factory in the north Vietnamese province of Bac Ninh, a freshly-posted sign advertises jobs for “hardworking, dynamic” workers over 16 years old.
The plant, which was bought by Taiwan’s Foxconn in 2016, may soon start making Google’s Pixel phones, according to local officials and to a report by Nikkei, as the Silicon Valley company looks for an alternative to manufacturing in China.
If the investment materialises, it will be a huge windfall both for Bac Ninh, to the east of Hanoi, where Samsung also has a major smartphone manufacturing base, and for Vietnam, which is emerging as one of the main safe havens from the trade war between the US and China.