Hon Hai Precision inaugurates new plant in Vietnam

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the world's top maker of outsourced electronics, yesterday started operations in northern Vietnam, kicking off investment plans it says will reach US$5 billion.

Hon Hai, the nation's largest company -- which manufactures Nokia phones, iPods, Sony PlayStations and laptops -- is planning a string of projects across Vietnam, an emerging economy that hopes to quickly ramp up its high-tech sector.

The company opened an US$80 million plant on Tuesday that will make camera modules, motherboards and connectors in northern Bac Ninh Province, the Vietnam News Agency said.

Hon Hai also plans to build a complex in neighboring Bac Giang Province, north of Hanoi, with a high-tech park, a new residential township, a golf course, a hospital and a theme park, the Nhan Dan daily said.

The investments in the two provinces are worth US$163 million, said the Thoi Bao Kinh Te of the Vietnam Economics Times, but Hon Hai has much bigger plans in Vietnam, which has seen more than 8 percent economic growth in recent years.

Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) said the company plans to become the largest foreign investor in Vietnam with a total capital of US$5 billion in the next three to five years and a local labor force of 300,000 workers.

Vietnam's government said on its Web site that the high-tech project in Bac Ninh had been "implemented at record speed."

"It took only eight months from the date the survey for an investment locality was conducted to the date the factory was inaugurated," it said.