South Korea's Samsung Electronics has secured a licence to invest $3 billion to expand its production in northern Vietnam, the Vietnamese government said.
The licence was awarded on 17 November in Thai Nguyen province, where Samsung Electronics has been operating a $2 billion smartphone plant, the government said in a statement issued late on Monday, without giving further details of the project.
Samsung Electronics has said it plans to invest up to $3 billion for its handset business in Vietnam as part of its strategy to cut costs and better compete with Chinese rivals.
Earlier this month, the manufacturer, which leads the smartphone wars, told Reuters the company was in discussions with Vietnam's government to invest $3 billion in its handset business. The schedule for the spending and how much will ultimately be spent have yet to be decided, a spokeswoman said.
Samsung has been increasing production in Vietnam to reduce costs and better compete with the low-priced smartphones of Chinese rivals in particular.
A subsidiary of the electronics giant, Samsung Display, said in July it received regulatory approval to build a $1 billion display module assembly plant in the country.
Samsung Electronics' latest move would bring its total investment pledges in Vietnam this year to around $11 billion, according to Dau Tu newspaper, whose controlling ministry oversees foreign investment.
Mobile phones and accessories became Vietnam's biggest cash earner last year, taking over textiles. In January to October this year, export revenue reached $19.2 billion, or around 15% of the country's total.
Samsung's first smartphone plant in Vietnam, built with an investment of $2 billion, generated $1.9 billion in export revenue in its first four months of operation, according to the Thai Nguyen provincial government.
The government has said the company's total revenue is expected to jump more than 67% to $13.4 billion next year, from $8 billion projected for 2014.
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