Samsung Electronics Vietnam Monday broke ground on its second facility in Vietnam -- a US$2 billion handset devices and parts plant in the northern province of Thai Nguyen, around 70km from Hanoi.

This is expected to be the South Korean company’s largest handset plant in the world. The Thai Nguyen plant is expected to produce more than 100 million mobile phones and 1 million digital cameras in the future.

It is included in a high-tech cluster, which is also home to a US$1.2 billion chip making factory.

The complex is expected to generate tens of thousands jobs for locals, contribute tens of billions of US dollars to the country’s annual export turnover, and strengthen the development of the electronic support industry in the northern region of Vietnam.

Confirming the project’s total value as $3.2 billion, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung appreciated Samsung’s decision to choose Vietnam as its major production destination, which would “help boost the strategic partnership between Vietnam and South Korea.”

“Vietnam will create favorable conditions for Samsung as well as other foreign businesses to operate in the country on the basis of friendship, cooperation and equality, and for mutual benefits,” the Prime Minister pledged.

Samsung’s first plant is located in Bac Ninh, another northern province. The plant, with some 30,000 workers, has so far produced more than 100 million products and enjoyed a $12.7 billion export turnover in 2012, according to Nguyen Van Dao, deputy CEO of Samsung Vina.

“Like its predecessor in Bac Ninh, the new Thai Nguyen cluster, once operational, will be producing Samsung’s flagship products such as the Galaxy S3 and S4,” Dao told Tuoi Tre.