VietNamNet Bridge – A Samsung Vietnam official has asserted that its $2 billion project in Thai Nguyen will continue and Samsung does not intend to move its factories from China to Vietnam.

Mr. Nguyen Van Dao, Deputy General Director of Samsung Vietnam, said that the project in Thai Nguyen is a huge and important project of Samsung Group. The factory began operating this March and it is expected to produce 8 million products by this year’s end.

Samsung Vietnam officials also denied the rumor that the group is planning to move its phone factories from China to Vietnam, calling it "totally unfounded".

On May 14, Taiwan's WantChinaTimes website quoted unnamed experts as saying that over the next three years, Samsung would transplant its factories from China to Vietnam due to rising labor costs.

In Vietnam, Samsung has two factories, in Bac Ninh and Thai Nguyen. The project in Bac Ninh has registered investment capital of $2.5 billion. This is the second largest factory of Samsung in the world and one of the most successful investment projects of Samsung Electronics worldwide. In 2012, the factory produced more than 100 million products, of which 97% were exported to over 50 countries globally.

The factory's export turnover reached $1 billion in September 2010 after 12 months of operation. In 2012, the factory earned $12.6 billion in export turnover, accounting for 11% of the total export revenue of the country. One year later, the figures increased to $23.9 billion and 18%, respectively.

Recently, Vietnam has emerged as a destination for major technology companies in the world. Samsung, LG, Nokia, Intel and others are taking the lead in a wave of foreign investment in Vietnam. They come to this country because the labor cost here is equivalent to one third that of China.

"Vietnam has stable political conditions and a qualified workforce. Similar to South Korea, Vietnam is very conscious of the reconstruction of its economy in a post-war period," LG said in a statement.

"The trend of moving companies from China to Vietnam will accelerate in the next 2-3 years, mainly because of the labor costs in China," said Mr. Lee Jung Soon, of the Korea Trade Promotion Agency in HCM City.

VNE/VNN