Vietnam’s leader has asked Lee Jae-yong, the de facto leader of South Korea’s top conglomerate Samsung Electronics, to make an investment in building a semiconductor plant in the country, according to news reports by Vietnamese media on Wednesday.

During a meeting held in Hanoi on Tuesday, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc expressed his hope that Samsung makes an investment in Vietnam by building a chip manufacturing plant there.

While visiting Seoul in November 2019, the Vietnamese leader first asked Lee about making investments in his country’s semiconductor industry.

At the latest meeting, Lee responded that he will visit Samsung’s facilities in Vietnam and see if there are any new investment opportunities.

The Samsung heir also said the company will make its Vietnam facilities a key post for its research and development for future technologies rather than maintaining them as simple manufacturing sites.

Lee, joined by Samsung’s mobile and display chiefs Roh Tae-moon and Lee Dong-hoon, is expected to visit Samsung’s R&D center currently under construction in Hanoi as well as the smartphone factory complex there.

They will also visit the company’s home appliance plant in Ho Chi Minh City.

By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)