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)