The expected decision by Intel, would be a major coup for communist-run Vietnam as it seeks to attract significant foreign investment.

The Intel Ireland campus, at Collinstown Industrial Park, Leixlip, County Kildare is Intel's fourth largest manufacturing site overall, and the largest outside the United States. Last month, Intel Chairman Craig Barrett said that the company is considering building a chip plant in India.

"We have just received the application, so it's not possible now to say anything about the licensing," Phan Huu Thang, head of the Planning and Investment Ministry's Foreign Investment Department said. The application is not expected to involve much soul-searching.

Intel will set up a Vietnam-based firm to build and run the plant in a high-tech zone in Ho Chi Minh City, the country's commercial centre.

A Science and Technology Ministry official said Intel intended the output of the plant for export.

"This is a very high-tech project and if licensed, Intel will become the first and the biggest foreign company to invest in Vietnam's high technology," he said.

Vietnam has been seeking to emulate China and invested more than $5 billion last year on importing machinery and spare parts.

Vietnam's exports of computers and electronics jumped 34.1 percent to $1.44 billion in 2005 from a year earlier, and it also invested $1.7 billion on electronic goods and computers, government figures show.

Last month, Deputy Planning and Investment Minister Nguyen Bich Dat said Vietnam expected to attract $6 billion in foreign direct investment in 2006, including funds for significant projects in high technology and infrastructure.

Vietnam received $5.8 billion in foreign direct investment in 2005, a rise of 38 percent from 2004.