Samsung Electronics to build $3b smartphone plant in Vietnam

South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd has applied for a license to invest $3 billion in building a second smartphone factory in northern Vietnam, a government official said on Monday.

Samsung Electronics Vietnam plans to build the factory in Thai Nguyen province, where it opened a $2 billion smartphone plant in March, said a senior official at the province's Planning and Investment Department.

"We are working on the project," said the official, confirming an earlier report by Dau Tu, a newspaper controlled by Vietnam's Planning and Investment Ministry. "There are still a few things to fix."

The official was not authorized to speak to media on the matter and so declined to be identified by name.