Samsung has broken ground on a €220 million R&D center in Vietnam, providing further evidence of the country's growing role in smartphone manufacturing and the global supply chain. Vietnamese government statistics suggest that domestic exports of smartphones and spare parts now account for €51.38 billion, with Samsung a major contributor. The Korean mobile giant claims to be the largest foreign investor in Vietnam, with investments totaling €17 million, with most of the company's production taking place there and in India.
Samsung Vietnam
The new R&D center will focus on artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, Big Data and 5G technologies, according to Reuters, and will be the largest such facility in Southeast Asia. Several manufacturers have begun outsourcing production from China to Vietnam due to concerns about rising labor costs and ongoing trade tensions between the United States and China. Samsung has already closed factories in Shenzhen and Tianjin, while Sony closed a factory in Beijing in 2019. Apple, which has relied on a large ecosystem in China, is also looking to move at least part of its supply chain to other parts of Asia. . The coronavirus crisis is another great challenge for the industry and that also raised its head on this occasion. The groundbreaking ceremony for the center had to be canceled due to a travel ban on visitors from South Korea to Vietnam, meaning several Samsung employees were unable to attend. via Reuters