The investment certificate award ceremony took place in South Korea on October 1 with Vietnam’s Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong witnessing. Vietnam’s Party chief is in Korea for a four-day official visit at the invitation of President Park Geun-hye, according to the management board of SHTP.

The Samsung CE Complex (SECC) will cover 70 hectares in SHTP with an aim to research, develop and produce electronic products with advanced technologies. As scheduled, construction of the project will start in January 2015 and the facility will be put into operation in the second quarter of 2016.

In the first phase, the project will focus on production of hi-tech television sets before turning out other home appliances. This is the latest project of Samsung in Vietnam and the successor of the Samsung Vina project, targeting to serve export markets in the region and worldwide.

According to the SHTP authority, the complex will also produce air conditioners, refrigerators and washing machines in the future. Samsung is speeding up sales of the products in Vietnam via imports.

Notably, the group will build a research and development (R&D) center to develop software for its electronic products.

Earlier, Samsung spent over a year surveying investment conditions and policies across the country before filing its investment application to SHTP on September 18, the authority said.

This is Samsung’s second project with investment capital from US$1 billion in Vietnam. In July, Samsung Display got an investment certificate for a US$1-billion project to research and develop high-resolution screens in the northern province of Bac Ninh.

This is also the second billion-dollar project at SHTP after a US$1-billion project of Intel Group licensed in 2006.

Samsung’s project is expected to spur the city’s export value, raise domestic production value in the hi-tech product structure and improve manpower standards in the coming time.

Samsung has two cell-phone and electronic device manufacturing complexes in the northern provinces of Bac Ninh and Thai Nguyen, employing nearly 60,000 workers and generating significant export revenues.

Currently, around 35% of Samsung mobile phones available on global markets are made by Samsung factories in Vietnam. The ratio is expected to rise to 50% in the coming time.

The firm also has plans to expand its business operations to petrochemical, shipbuilding, thermal power and airport.

Last year, Samsung C&T Corporation signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Planning and Investment on cooperation in infrastructure development.

From January to September, Korea was the biggest foreign investor in Vietnam with combined approvals of US$3.55 billion for new and operational projects.