By Jiahui Huang


Foxconn Technology is set to invest over half a billion dollars in Vietnam as the Apple supplier looks to expand its base in the Southeast Asian country.

The world's largest contract electronics maker was granted a license for two projects worth $551 million in Vietnam's northern Quang Ninh province, according to a local government website.

The two projects will boost Foxconn's production and manufacturing capacity in the country. One of the planned facilities will be a $263.7 million site that produces smart entertainment products with an annual capacity of 4.18 million units a year, the government statement said. The other $287.2 million project will manufacture smart-system equipment and has an annual capacity of 8.78 million units, the statement said.

The local government will form a working group to speed up the process and help Foxconn start operating the two projects in September 2025, according to the statement.

The Taiwanese company, formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry, has poured more than $3 billion into Vietnam to expand its capacity there. Last month, Vietnam state media reported that it will invest $383 million to build a factory in Bac Ninh province specializing in printed circuit boards.

Other companies have also been looking to grow their footprint in the country, a prospect made more attractive by rising tensions between China and the U.S. that are spurring supply chain diversification. Samsung Electronics, which has more than $22 billion invested in the Southeast Asian country, plans to ramp up its investment and make Vietnam a major display production hub, Samsung chairman Lee Jae-yong said in a recent meeting with the Vietnamese prime minister in Seoul.

Vietnam appeals as a manufacturing hub for foreign companies, thanks to advantages including a skilled but still cost-competitive labor force and multitude of free-trade agreements.

Foreign direct investment into the country increased by 10.3% in the first half of the year--the largest jump since the corresponding period of 2020, analysts at BMI, a unit of Fitch Solutions, said in a report.

A key driver has been multinational firms' efforts to implement so-called China+1 strategies to reduce their reliance on China, and BMI expects Vietnam to benefit from steady investment growth throughout 2024.


Write to Jiahui Huang at jiahui.huang@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

07-04-24 0810ET