HANOI (Reuters) - Nvidia wishes to establish a base in Vietnam to develop the country's semiconductor industry as it considers the Vietnamese market an important one, the Vietnamese government said, citing the U.S. chipmaker's chief executive.

In his first visit to the Southeast Asian country, Nvidia's CEO, Jensen Huang, said the company viewed Vietnam as its home and affirmed its plans to set up a centre in the country.

"The base will be for attracting talent from around the world to contribute to the development of Vietnam's semiconductor ecosystem and digitalisation," the Vietnamese government statement cited Huang after his meeting with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.

Nvidia, which has already invested $250 million in Vietnam, is set to discuss cooperation deals on semiconductors with Vietnamese tech companies and authorities in a meeting on Monday, Reuters reported on Friday.

Vietnam, which is home to large chip assembling factories including Intel's biggest globally, is trying to expand into chip designing and possibly chip-making as trade tensions between the United States and China create opportunities for Vietnam in the industry.

The chipmaker has already partnered with Vietnam's leading tech companies to deploy AI in the cloud, automotive and healthcare industries, a document published by the White House in September showed when Washington upgraded diplomatic relations with Vietnam.

(Reporting by Phuong Nguyen, Editing by Louise Heavens)