Samsung imprinting essential role in fostering capital inflows

Electronics groups from South Korea and Japan are continuing to expand in Vietnam, Le Toan

The Saigon Hi-tech Park Management Authority has recently granted the license for Samsung Electronics HCMC CE Complex (SEHC) to expand its operation with a total investment capital of $841 million. Starting operations in 2016, SEHC is currently Samsung Electronics’ second-largest manufacturing site worldwide for TV screens and home electronics units.

Meanwhile, Samsung Engineering has officially become the strategic shareholder of DNP Water, a member of DNP Holdings, after spending $41 million to acquire 24 per cent of the company. The pair signed a strategic partnership agreement on June 29.

Investing in DNP Water is an opportunity for Samsung Engineering to approach the water treatment sector in Vietnam. With the experience and the competition capacity, it has plans to open wastewater treatment plants and then expand to other surrounding countries.

Founded in 1970, Samsung Engineering has broadened its business portfolio to a full range of engineering services, such as upstream and downstream hydrocarbon facilities, power plants, water and waste treatment plants, and industrial production facilities.

In February, Samsung injected $920 million into its Electro-Mechanics Vietnam project in the northern province of Thai Nguyen, raising the factory’s total investment to $2.27 billion. The facility mainly manufactures and assembles mainboards, flexible printed circuit boards, and components and spare parts like camera modules, power adapters, touch sensor modules, and linear motors.

Taking these capital adjustments into account, the South Korean giant has channelled a total of more than $20 billion into the Southeast Asian country. Samsung’s plan to pour $20 billion into Vietnam, discussed a few years ago, has now been realised, and the world’s largest smartphone producer continues to hold the number one position in the list of largest foreign investors in Vietnam.

The figures, published by the Foreign Investment Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, showed that in the first six months of this year there were many large-scale added capital projects in terms of the high-tech sector and electronic component production.

In general, in the first half of this year, Vietnam reached $14.03 billion in registered foreign-invested capital. Of which, the processing and manufacturing industry continued to lead with a total investment of nearly $8.84 billion, accounting for nearly 63 per cent of the total registered investment capital.

In the first six months, there were 487 projects registered to adjust their investment capital, up 5.9 per cent over the same period, with the total additional registered capital reaching nearly $6.82 billion, up 65.6 per cent compared to the same period last year.

Along with the outstanding imprint of Samsung, in March this year, China-backed Goertek received an investment certificate to expand its investment capital by $306 million for its factory for electronic and multimedia equipment located in Bac Ninh’s Que Vo Industrial Park. Goertek has been operating in Vietnam since 2013 and has so far established two facilities in Bac Ninh and the central province of Nghe An. Goertek is also near the end of first-phase construction of a factory project for manufacturing electronic products, network equipment and multimedia audio products at WHA Industrial Zone 1 – Nghe An, based in Nghi Loc district.

During his working trip to Nghe An on June 20, general director of Goertek Vina Company Yoshinaga Kazuyoshi said that progress is good and the factory is set to be put into operation in early 2023. Construction progress for the first phase is 98 per cent complete and the facility is expected to create jobs for about 5,000 employees when it comes into full operations.