$300 million Samsung R&D centre licensed On March 30, the Hanoi People’s Committee granted the investment certificate for Samsung Electronics Vietnam (SEV)’s $300 million research and development (R&D) centre to be built in Hanoi’s Hoang Mai district.   Accordingly, SEV will develop a 21-storey building on a three-hectare land plot and employ 2,000 labourers in 2016, which will be bolstered to 4,000 in the upcoming years. A total capital volume of $300 million will be disbursed within four years, including $50 million in the 2016-2017 period, $150 million in 2018, and the remaining $100 million in 2019. The centre will be licensed to operate for 50 years with exemption from land lease fees. According to the chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee, Nguyen Duc Chung, once the centre comes into operation, it will contribute to attracting FDI capital, training and developing high-quality human resources, and creating links with local enterprises to develop the supporting industries in the capital. “The city expects the project’s construction to be completed on schedule. Hanoi commits to providing preferential conditions for SEV during the construction process,” Chung said. According to Han Myoung Sup, general director of SEV, Samsung will concentrate its resources to complete the construction on schedule, professing to determination in building a long-term co-operation. The centre is expected to bring benefits for both Samsung and Vietnam. Samsung has been renting eight floors at PVI Tower in Hanoi since 2012 for Samsung Vietnam Mobile Research and Development Centre (SVMC), which has contributed around 10 per cent of the software used in Samsung's smart phones and tablets globally. SVMC is currently Samsung’s largest R&D centre in the Southeast Asian region, taking up an eminent position among corporation’s 25 R&D centres worldwide. Debuting in Vietnam in 1996, the Korean giant currently has three major manufacturing complexes in Vietnam, including Samsung Vina Electronics in Ho Chi Minh City and the $2.5 billion Samsung Vietnam Electronics project in the northern province of Bac Ninh, which became operational in 2009. The remaining one is the $5 billion Samsung Vietnam Electronics Thai Nguyen complex, which went on stream in March 2014. By Thu Trang, VIR