HANOI -- Vietnam will invest about 12.8 trillion Vietnamese dong ($501.2 million) to build a small-scale semiconductor chip manufacturing plant to serve research, design, production, packaging and testing, local media reported Monday.

Nguyen Khac Lich, director of the Department of Information and Communications Technology, said enterprises investing in the plant would be supported.

He said the country would support 30 percent of the total investment directly from the central budget in case the plant is accepted and put into production before Dec 31, 2030, with the total support amount not exceeding 10 trillion dong ($391.6 million).

During the project preparation and implementation, an annual deduction of more than 10 percent but not exceeding 20 percent of the enterprise's taxable income can be made for the enterprise's technology development fund to supplement the project, he said.

Last year, Vietnam issued a strategy for semiconductor industry development until 2030, with a vision for 2050.