Samsung Electronics wins $3 billion Vietnam project licence

HANOI (Reuters) - South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd has secured a licence to invest $3 billion (2 billion pounds) to expand its production in northern Vietnam, the Vietnamese government said. The licence was awarded on Nov. 17 in Thai Nguyen province, where Samsung Electronics has been operating a $2 billion smartphone plant, the government said in a statement issued late on Monday, without giving further details of the project. Samsung Electronics has said it plans to invest up to $3 billion for its handset business in Vietnam as part of its strategy to cut costs and better compete with Chinese rivals. (Reporting by Ho Binh Minh; Editing by Stephen Coates)