South Korea’s LG Electronics today received the investment certificate for its $1.5 billion manufacturing project in the northern Haiphong port city.

The complex will be located in the city’s Trang Due Industrial Park that is also a part of Dinh Vu-Cat Hai Economic Zone. This means LG and other manufacturers inside the industrial zone will enjoy tax incentives offered to economic zones - one of the highest ones offered to investors in Vietnam at present.

According to Kinh Bac City Development Holding Corporation (KBC), the developer of Trang Due Industrial Park, LG will produce home appliances such as air conditioners, LCD television and washing machines and electronics equipments for automotive industry. The complex, once operating, will create about 20,000 jobs in Haiphong and it will help attract more foreign suppliers in electronics industry to Trang Due Industrial Park in particular and to Haiphong in general.

LG now runs factories in Haiphong and the northern province of Hung Yen, but they are rather small in size and therefore it is difficult to increase the production scale at existing factories.

The new investment in Haiphong is part of the company’s effort to integrate, relocate and expand production in Vietnam to meet both global and local demand. The South Korean electronic firm proposed to develop this giant manufacturing complex last year. Early this year, LG signed a contract with KBC to rent 40 hectares of land for the manufacturing complex.

Once LG expands production in Haiphong, it can easily export products to international markets as this city is the key gateway for export and import operations in the north of Vietnam.

The Vietnamese government in April began construction of Lach Huyen deep-water seaport and also upgraded an international airport in this city to facilitate business environment.

By