Samsung Chairman Jay Y. Lee flies to Vietnam for global business

Samsung Electronics Co. Chairman Jay Y. Lee embarked on a business trip to Vietnam on Wednesday to attend an opening ceremony for a research and development center there and is likely to discuss further investment in the Southeast Asian nation with its President Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

Lee is also scheduled to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland Jan. 16-20,  2023, prompting speculation that the leader of South Korea’s top conglomerate Samsung Group may discuss potential investment in the country’s bio and pharmaceutical industries, according to industry sources. He is also expected to visit Samsung’s other overseas operations in early January to manage its global business, the sources said.

Lee’s visit to Vietnam is his second overseas trip since he took the group’s top position in October. Earlier this month, he went to Abu Dhabi to meet with businesspeople and politicians and tour the Barakah nuclear power plant project in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

“A research center is completed,” Lee told reporters at Gimpo International Airport in Seoul before heading to Vietnam. But he declined to comment when asked about further investment plans in the country, one of Samsung’s key overseas production bases.

POTENTIAL MEETING WITH VIETNAM PRESIDENT

Samsung is set to hold an opening ceremony for the R&D center in Hanoi on Dec. 23. The world’s top memory chip and smartphone maker has spent $220 million since March 2020 on the 16-story facility with a total floor area of 79,511 square meters on an 11,603-square-meter site.

“We will support this place to become a Samsung R&D base,” Lee said in 2020.

Lee may meet Phuc before or after the ceremony with Dec. 22 marking the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between South Korea and Vietnam.

“Chairman Lee is expected to meet Vietnamese government and political figures to discuss business cooperation during the business trip,” said an industry source in Seoul.

Write to Ji-Eun Jeong and Jeong-Soo Hwang at jeong@hankyung.com
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.