Samsung needs to regard Vietnam as an important base: PM Chinh

Samsung Vietnam officially put their latest Research and Development Centre (R&D) into operation on December 23 in Tay Ho urban area of Hanoi, with the site being the largest of its kind in Southeast Asia.

The R&D Centre has received investment of approximately US$220 million, with the location designed with 16 floors and three basements with a total construction area of 11,603sq.m and a gross floor area of 79,511sq.m.

Upon addressing the inauguration ceremony, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasised that Vietnam and the Republic of Korea (RoK) officially established diplomatic relations on December 22, 1992, noting that over the past 30 years, mutual ties have been constantly developed across multiple fields such as economics and people-to-people exchange.

PM Chinh pointed out that political trust and understanding between both sides has been continuously consolidated, adding that economic, trade, and investment co-operation has become a key pillar and a driving force for developing ties between the two countries.

Furthermore, several large RoK corporations and enterprises have successfully invested and operated in the Vietnamese market, thereby making active contribution to the country’s socio-economic development.

PM Chinh noted that the nation has become an important production "base" of Samsung globally, adding that the implementation of the R&D Center investment project in Hanoi has clearly demonstrated Samsung's orientations and commitments to long-term operations in the country.

For his part, Roh Tae Moon, CEO of Samsung Electronics, expressed hope that the R&D center will become the cradle to nurture the best information technology talents in Vietnam as well as being a place for the launch of the world’s leading technologies.

He emphasized   that these talents will become a source of positive contribution to improve the nation’s industrial competitiveness in the world.  

Moving forward, Samsung plans to develop its R&D Center in Vietnam into the leading one globally by strengthening partnerships with universities through the technology product development of artificial intelligence (AI), Big Data, and the Internet of things (IoT). This will be along with providing support for enhancing capacity for Vietnamese information technology (IT) human resources.

Through use of the R&D Center, Samsung hopes to actively contribute to the further development of hardware and software suitable for advanced information technology and the Industry 4.0.

By the end of 2021, Samsung's total accumulated investment in the Vietnamese market stood at US$18.2 billion, with this figure predicted to exceed US$20 billion by the end of the year.