Samsung Electronics to ramp up investment in Vietnam: president

Samsung Electronics, the largest single foreign investor in Vietnam, will expand its investment in the country, said president and chief financial officer Park Hark Kyu.

At a Tuesday meeting with Vietnamese Finance Minister Ho Duc Phoc in Hanoi, the CFO reiterated that Vietnam is Samsung's key manufacturing hub where its operations remained stable amid Covid-19 outbreaks in 2020 and 2021.

Park said he believed Samsung's subsidiaries and other multinationals would continue to expand their investments in Vietnam.

The Vietnamese minister told Park his ministry would continue creating favorable conditions for Samsung and other FDI companies to operate effectively and sustainably.

Samsung receives one of the best incentives in Vietnam. Last September, the nation's General Department of Customs extended a preferential tax scheme for Samsung Electronics Vietnam under Samsung Vietnam for three more years.

Dang Ngoc Minh, deputy chief of the department, told a workshop in June last year: “The preferential tax rates offered to major multinationals range from 2.75% to 5.95%. The incentives aim to attract major investors to Vietnam.”

The Korean giant has four plants and two R&D centers in Vietnam. The plants include Samsung HCMC CE Complex (SEHC) in Ho Chi Minh City; Samsung Electronics Vietnam (SEV) and Samsung Display Vietnam (SDV), both in Bac Ninh province; and Samsung Electronics Vietnam Thai Nguyen (SEVT) in Thai Nguyen province.

The four earned profits of KRW5.06 trillion ($3.88 billion) in the first three quarters of last year, up 24.13% year-on-year, according to the group’s financial statement.

In Bac Ninh, Samsung Electronics Vietnam and Samsung Display Vietnam paid taxes of VND2.56 trillion ($109.13 million) and VND1.24 trillion ($53 million) in the 2020-2021 period, respectively, provincial data shows.

Samsung is set to add $2 billion into Vietnam, raising its total investment in the country to $20 billion, Samsung Electronics CEO Han Jong-hee said in a meeting with Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc in Seoul last month.

Samsung Electronics inaugurated its largest Southeast Asia research and development center in Hanoi on December 23, indicating an elevation of the importance of Vietnam not only as a manufacturing hub but also as a center for research activities.

"I expect the R&D center to contribute to Vietnam's industrial competitiveness and to the relationship between South Korea and Vietnam," Samsung Electronics executive chairman Lee Jae-yong said at the opening ceremony in Hanoi.