SEOUL, KOREA - Samsung Electronics will build a large-scale home appliance assembly plant near Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, at the cost of US$1 billion. Following the construction of the world's largest mobile phone plant by the same company, Vietnam will likely become the most important production base for Samsung with the announcement of the home electronics plant.

 

According to industry sources and Vietnamese news reports on June 6, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee has approved the plan by Samsung to build a plant in the Saigon Hi-Tech Park in the eastern outskirts of the city. The company has negotiated with the People's Committee for incentive packages including tax breaks after selecting the high-tech park for the site of its new home appliance plant.

 

The Vietnamese government will offer the company a package including six years of corporate tax exemption and 5-percent taxes for the next four years afterward. At the 700,000-square-meter site, Samsung Electronics will produce air-conditioners, TVs, refrigerators, and washing machines.

 

Currently Samsung is running a mobile phone plant capable of producing 120 million units a year in Bac Ninh Province in the north, followed by the completion in March this year of a similar-sized mobile phone factory in nearby Thai Nguyen Province