Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, the de facto leader of South Korea's top conglomerate, plans to visit Vietnam this week, his second overseas business trip this year after returning from Europe last week, Yonhap News Agency reported.

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong is set to visit Vietnam this week. Source: Samsung.

Mr. Lee is scheduled to depart for Vietnam on Tuesday [October 20] and probably meet Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc during his trip to discuss possible investment plans, marking the former’s first visit to Vietnam since October 2018.

During Mr. Lee previous meeting with Vietnam’s PM Phuc on October 30, 2018, Mr. Phuc expected Samsung to speed up construction of the R&D center in Hanoi, which is part of the plan to promote research and development in Vietnam.

The US$300-million R&D project, which was kicked off in March 2020, is expected to become operational in 2022 in Hanoi.

Yonhap said in the upcoming trip, Mr. Lee would inspect Samsung's R&D center under construction in Hanoi, as well as the company's plants there.

Samsung currently has four subsidiaries in Vietnam, including Samsung Display Vietnam (SDV), Samsung Electronics Vietnam Bac Ninh (SEV), Samsung Electronics Vietnam Thai Nguyen (SEVT) and Samsung Electronics Ho Chi Minh (SEHC).

Samsung Vietnam expected its export turnover in 2020 to reach US$45.5 billion, down US$5.8 billion from last year.

According to Samsung's statistics, around 50% of Samsung's smartphones and tablets are produced in Vietnam and exported to 128 countries and territories, including the US, Europe, Russia and Southeast Asia. This resulted in 58% of Samsung’s smartphone sales globally come from its production facilities in Vietnam.

In the 2008 – 2018 period, Samsung increased its total investment in Vietnam from US$670 million to over US$17.3 billion, a 26-fold rise.