Vietnam’s president To Lam is set to meet his South Korean counterpart Lee Jae Myung in Hanoi next week, according to sources.
Lee’s trip would mark the first visit by a foreign leader to Vietnam since Lam was elected president last week, enabling him to hold both the presidency and the Communist Party leadership—the most powerful role in the one-party system.
However, It would not be Lam’s first top-level meeting in his new position, as he met China’s President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Wednesday.
The meeting is currently scheduled for April 23, the sources said.
Economic Ties
Government cooperation agreements are likely to be signed. Seoul is also interested in some of Vietnam’s largest infrastructure projects, such as railways and nuclear power plants, but no major decisions are expected in those areas, they said.
South Korea’s foreign ministry declined to comment. Vietnam’s foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
South Korea is the largest investor in the Southeast Asian nation in terms of accumulated capital, with output from Samsung factories alone accounting for more than one-tenth of the country’s exports. Yet Korean investment pledges fell about 25% last year from 2024, according to Vietnam’s government data, amid trade uncertainties and concerns over Vietnam’s regulations.
The meeting would be the leaders’ second in about eight months, after Lam visited Seoul in August, the first foreign leader hosted by Lee after he was elected president in Seoul.
Business Deals & Strategic Projects
Lee will be accompanied by a large business delegation including officials from Samsung, with multiple corporate agreements expected to be signed, possibly on April 23, officials have said without elaborating on the possible deals.
Samsung’s talks with Vietnamese authorities to build a back-end semiconductor factory have made progress after years of negotiations, but it remains unclear when any announcement could be made, three people familiar with the matter said.
Reports of a planned $4 billion investment in a semiconductor testing, and possibly packaging, facility were removed from Vietnamese media in recent days.
The three people said Samsung’s potential outlay had not been finalised. The total initial investment would be smaller and could expand over time, potentially including a cluster of suppliers, one of them said.
Samsung declined to comment.
(With inputs from Reuters)
