From manufacturing base to R&D base

Keeping its promise to the Vietnamese Government, Samsung is gradually turning Vietnam into a global R&D “base”. Technology has begun to be transferred, and many global-scale projects have been and are being implemented at Samsung’s R&D Center in Hanoi.

Samsung R&D Center located in Tay Ho Tay Urban Area (Hanoi)

Samsung R&D Center is located in Tay Ho Tay Urban Area (Hanoi).

The miracle called artificial intelligence

Ngo Hong Thai, 33 years old, AI (artificial intelligence) Team Leader, has worked at Samsung Vietnam for 10 years. Previously, at the Samsung Vietnam Mobile R&D Center (SVMC), located at the PVI Tower building, and now at the Samsung R&D Center (SRV), located in the Tay Ho Tay Urban Area (Hanoi). Since SRV was inaugurated and put into operation at the end of December 2022, Thai has been transferred to his new "home".

Nguyen Ngoc Hung, 36 years old, Head of Testing Department of SRV is the same. Hung has had a relationship with Samsung since he was a student at Hanoi University of Science and Technology, received a scholarship from Samsung, worked at Samsung and up to now, it has been more than 12 years.

Having been with Samsung for more than ten years, both have participated in many different large and small R&D projects, including projects on a Vietnamese scale, but also projects on a regional and global scale. Thai participated in developing the SmartThings application, a global project. Simply put, with the SmartThings application, users can monitor and control smart home appliances right from their Samsung phones or TVs. As for Hung, just last year, he participated in testing Samsung's flagship phone models, such as the Galaxy S23, Fold 5, Z-Flip 5, etc.

Samsung will always accompany Vietnam to not only become the largest foreign invested and exporting enterprise in Vietnam, but also become an enterprise that receives the love of the Vietnamese people.

- Mr. Choi Joo Ho, General Director of Samsung Vietnam

It was a great pleasure to participate in those projects, but both Hung and Thai said that they had never felt happier and more proud to participate in the AI project for the Galaxy S24 series, which was launched globally in January 2024. “At the Unpacked Galaxy S24 series event, when I heard that Vietnamese was one of the 13 languages supported on this phone line, I was extremely proud,” Thai said.

Swiping his hand over the brand new Galaxy S24 Ultra, displayed right in the lobby of SRV at a time when this flagship line had not yet been officially "on shelves" in the Vietnamese market, Hung "demonstrated" a series of outstanding AI features that immediately after its launch made a huge impression on experts and technology enthusiasts. For example, multi-purpose search area, powerful Note assistant, professional photo editing assistant, night vision camera and especially the features of live translation, translation assistant, smart chat assistant.

For example, with the live translate feature, without opening any third-party applications, on-device AI is capable of translating two-way text and voice from a call almost instantly, for both the caller and the listener, helping to erase any language gap.

“These applications will greatly support Vietnamese users, because among the first 13 supported languages, there is Vietnamese,” Hung said, proudly announcing that Hung’s “team” was assigned to test all 7 AI features of the Galaxy S24 series. Meanwhile, Thai’s “team” is in charge of researching and developing features related to the Vietnamese language.

“We have never been assigned such a big project, in such a short time, with great pressure, but when it was completed, we were extremely happy,” Thai continued.

The task was challenging. To bring those great features to users, Vietnamese engineers in Thai’s application development “team” and Hung’s testing “team” made great efforts. They went to India, China, and Korea to collaborate on research, then worked day and night to research, to test, to test, to fix errors, to be able to produce the best “final version”.

“There will be feedback from users, we will continue to research and test to create the best version,” Hung said and smiled slightly when he saw that during the conversation with them, I still used a laptop to “note” the main information and used a phone to record. All of those tasks, including converting audio files into “text”, could have been easily done with the Galaxy S24 phone, through the magical support of AI. More importantly, the hands and minds of Vietnamese engineers made that miracle happen.

From manufacturing base to strategic R&D base

More than 2,000 SRV employees have moved to the most modern and spacious “new home” in Tay Ho Tay Urban Area, with an investment capital of up to 220 million USD, for more than a year. At the inauguration of the first R&D center building that Samsung built overseas, Samsung Electronics General Director Roh Tae-Moon said that Samsung will improve its expertise and expand the R&D field so that this place will not only become the leading R&D center in Southeast Asia, but also the number 1 R&D center globally.

Vietnamese engineers working at Samsung R&D Center Vietnam

“We will also enhance the expertise of the Samsung Vietnam R&D Center by focusing on in-depth research on core mobile technologies, such as multimedia and security,” said Mr. Roh Tae-Moon. He said that Samsung will strengthen the R&D Center’s research force so that products and services developed in Vietnam can be brought to consumers globally, rather than just focusing on development activities in Southeast Asia as it is now.

When asked by Hung and Thai whether SRV has actually transferred technology and is gradually turning SRV into a global R&D center, the answer is “yes”. Currently, Samsung globally has gradually transferred the latest and most modern technologies to SRV. Of course, where to transfer depends on the capacity of Vietnamese engineers, whether they can receive the most advanced technologies.

“I think we can, we are ready,” Thai said, citing the AI project as an example. While SRV is not currently in a “leader” role, Vietnamese engineers will soon be responsible for developing all AI features related to the Vietnamese language.

Meanwhile, Hung's testing division, in the future, will not only support Thailand, but also Australia and Indonesia.

“Since moving here, in our own home, we have been able to carry out large projects, which are increasingly more advanced and modern, which have never been done before. I think Samsung will never break its promise to the Vietnamese Government and consumers,” Hung said.

It has been more than a year since SRV has had its new headquarters. Since then, SRV has been in charge of software development for all Samsung mobile products in Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States, Southeast Asia, and even the Middle East and Africa, although currently excluding flagship products.

In addition to participating in developing features on the first Galaxy AI, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Ha, Head of SRV Project Management Department, said that SRV also undertakes many other important projects.

“For the first time, our SRV has also been fully developed for the basic Note PC product, from mechanics, hardware and software. This is the foundation for developing more Note PC models in the future,” said Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Ha.

The Head of SRV Project Management Department said that SRV has also started receiving development projects for Network products, as well as receiving the transfer of 2 strategic operating areas from Korea, including multimedia features and security features on Samsung phones. Previously, the features of these 2 areas were done by other R&D centers, but now, they have been transferred to Samsung R&D Vietnam staff.

Samsung has indeed kept its promise to the Vietnamese Government, and is gradually turning Vietnam into a global R&D "stronghold".

Together we grow to make a better world

Samsung Vietnam General Director Choi Joo Ho has repeatedly affirmed that, not only is it a production base, the completion of SRV has demonstrated Samsung's determination to help Vietnam overcome its role as a "production base" to become Samsung's "strategic R&D base" globally.

- Many large, global projects have been implemented by Vietnamese engineers at the Samsung R&D Center Vietnam.

“There will be many remarkable R&D activities carried out by Samsung in Vietnam, not only in the field of product development, but also in future technology research fields such as AI, 5G network…”, Mr. Choi Joo Ho said and that is gradually becoming a reality.

Along with continuing to accelerate investment in Vietnam, which has accumulated to more than 22 billion USD to date, Samsung continues to make great contributions to Vietnam's socio-economic development. In 2023, despite the general difficulties of the global economy, Samsung Vietnam's total revenue still reached over 64.3 billion USD, and contributed more than 55.7 billion USD to Vietnam's export turnover. And now, there are also great contributions to R&D activities, an upstream investment activity that Vietnam has long awaited.

Many years ago, when talking about Samsung, people still mentioned the image of boys and girls who were brought from the farm to the factory, familiarized with machinery and high technology and affirmed that this was the first step for Vietnam to move towards industrialization. But now, it is bringing Vietnamese engineers from universities and small research labs to the most modern R&D centers in the world. A big step forward, bringing the opportunity for Vietnam to "upgrade" its economy.

A funny story is that, right before the Lunar New Year, Mr. Choi Joo Ho was awarded the Friendship Medal by the President. Moved to receive the noble award, Mr. Choi Joo Ho once again emphasized that Samsung will always accompany Vietnam to not only become the largest foreign invested export enterprise in Vietnam, but also become an enterprise that receives the love of the Vietnamese people.

“Samsung will continue to carry out its activities in Vietnam based on the philosophy of Samsung Chairman: sharing together and developing together is the path to a better world,” said Mr. Choi Joo Ho.

Perhaps, that is also what millions of Vietnamese people have long been waiting for!

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