Samsung to invest $700M in Vietnam

Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee and wife Hong Ra-hee pose with young employees of Samsung Electronics Vietnam in Hanoi on Saturday during their visit. Provided by the company

HANOI-Samsung Electronics plans to invest $700 million into a new mobile phone factory soon to be built in Vietnam as part of efforts to expand its global production lines, company officials said Saturday.
Samsung Electronics Vietnam, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the world’s top mobile phone maker by revenue, is weighing two locations in northern Vietnam - a farming region of Thai Nguyen and Hai Phong, a harbor city - for the factory, they said.
Currently, the company is leaning toward the former, a company source privy to the matter said.
“Vietnam is a dynamic country with great potential for growth. We’ll push for a second phase of our investment project in the country,” Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee told reporters when visited Hanoi this week.
In Hanoi, Lee met with Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai to ask for support for the investment, Samsung officials said.
Samsung’s Vietnamese subsidiary has been operating a mobile phone factory in a northeastern rural district of Yen Phong since 2009, with its annual production capacity reaching 150 million units, according to the company.

The Samsung chairman is scheduled to visit Shanghai today where he will inspect the company’s production lines and market. Samsung first entered the Chinese market in 1992. Its revenue in China has been growing on average 23 percent in recent years. Last year Samsung’s revenue in China was $58 billion. The chairman’s entourage also includes Choi Gee-Sung, the Korean conglomerates’ vice chairman and head of corporate strategy office, as well as Samsung Electronics’ COO and heir apparent Jay Y. Lee.

By Lee Ho-jeong, Yonhap [ojlee82@joongang.co.kr]