Vietnam OKs Samsung’s mobile plant plan (Vietnam)The Vietnamese government has given approval for Samsung Electronics Co. to build a mobile phone factory north of Hanoi, the Vietnam News Agency reported Wednesday.
The South Korean electronics company said last week that it decided to invest US$50 billion to construct a handset plant in Vietnam’s northern province of Bac Ninh.
The report said that Samsung Electronics Vietnam, the company’s local subsidiary, was given final approval on Monday to go ahead with its plan.
Construction of the plant, expected to have an annual production capacity of 30 million units initially and of up to 100 million units in the future, is scheduled to be completed in 2010. It will buy 40 percent of its materials from Vietnamese suppliers and provide jobs for over 20,000 local workers, the report said.
In addition to Samsung’s domestic plant in Gumi, 260 kilometers southeast of Seoul, Samsung also has facilities in China, India and Brazil.
Samsung outperformed its closest rival Motorola Inc. in 2007 to become the world’s No. 2 maker of mobile handsets after Nokia Corp. in terms of sales. The South Korean company sold US$22.1 billion worth of mobile handsets last year worldwide.
