Viet Nam a key production base for RoK firms   Workers check products at Korean-invested Shinwon Ebenezer Ha Noi Co Ltd. - VNA/VNS Photo Trong Dat HCM CITY (VNS) - Giant Korean companies like Samsung, LG, Hyundai, Doosan, Posco have turned Viet Nam into their global production base by ceaselessly expanding investment. It has contributed to promote Viet Nam's industrialization processing and exporting growth. Since beginning production in April 2009 Samsung Corporation has increased its investment from the original US$670 million to $2.5 billion now. Samsung Electronics Viet Nam (SEV) has also contributed greatly to the development of the country's electronics sector and exports. Last year, for instance, it exported phones and parts worth $23.9 billion, or 18 per cent of all of Viet Nam's exports. The figure is expected to increase to $30 billion this year when its Thai Nguyen Province plant reaches full production. Samsung wants to make Viet Nam a global production base. It now has five phone and electronic components production factories, and plans to build a $1.4 billion plant in HCM City to produce electronic appliances, and others in Dong Nai, Ha Tinh, and Khanh Hoa for its infrastructure, energy and ship building businesses. Samsung CE Complex Electronic Co., to come up at the Sai Gon Hi-tech Park in HCM City, received the licence on October 1 from Nguyen Phu Trong, General Secretary of the Communist Party, who is on an ongoing visit to South Korea. The factory will produce 3D smart TVs, refrigerators, air- conditioners, and washing machines starting in the second quarter of 2016. It will also have an R&D centre. After successfully producing in Viet Nam, LG decided last year to expand with an electronic appliances factory in Hai Phong to add to its existing ones in the northern port city and in Hung Yen Province. A few weeks ago it signed an MoU with the Kinh Bac Group to lease more land at the Trang Due Industrial Park in Hai Phong to expand production, making Viet Nam a key base. In November Posco Special Steel's $600 million factory will go on stream and annually produce one million tonnes of ingots. Kumho Asiana plans to expand its Kumho Tires plant in Binh Duong at a cost of $300 million. Doosan Vina also plans to expand its existing operations at the Dung Quat Economic Zone, Quang Ngai. According to data from the Foreign Investment Agency, in the year-to-date Korea has invested $3.35 billion to become the biggest investor in Viet Nam. Park Chang Eun, deputy director of Korea Trade and Investment Promotion Agency, said the investments would continue to increase because many large Korean corporations are considering expansion plans in Viet Nam, which has become an important investment destination for them. Shinsegae, one of Korea's leading retail groups, also wants to do business in Viet Nam while one month ago, Lotte inaugurated its Lotte Center, the second highest building in Ha Noi. - VNS