President Moon Jae-in, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-hwa and Samsung Vice President Lee Jay-yong cut the ribbon to open Samsung Electronics’ new smarphone plant in Noida in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh on July 9. (Photo on the courtesy of Cheong Wa Dae)

President Moon Jae-in met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Samsung Vice President Lee Jay-yong during a ceremony to open Samsung Electronics’ new smartphone plant in Noida in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh on July 9. The president, on a state visit to India, had a brief and separate unscheduled meeting with Vice President Lee before the event. It is the first that President Moon has met with Lee since he took office in May 2016.
In his congratulatory speech, President Moon said, “Samsung Electronics topped in Indian smartphone market share and ranked 1st in terms of brand reliability for the second straight year, and the Noida plant has become Samsung Electronics’ largest smartphone factory among those in Korea and abroad.”
He said that the brisker the Noida plant gets, the more the Indian and Korean economies will develop together. President Moon also stressed that the Korean government will provide full support to make the plan a symbolic of a win-win collaboration between the two countries. The dedication of the Noida plant will serve as an opportunity for more SME parts makers to create job and export their products, he said.
Prior to the event, President Moon met with Vice Chairman Lee, an heir-apparent of Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee, for five minutes. Cho Han-ki, a presidential senior secretary, and Samsung Electronics Senior Executive Vice President Hong Hyun-chil in charge of West Asia business, were also present at the meeting. President Moon extended congratulations on Samsung Electronics’ dedication of the plant and expressed thanks for its role in India’s continued economic strides. Moon also called Samsung to make more investments and create more jobs in Korea. In reply, Vice Chairman Lee said the president’s visit in India became a boon to the staffer.
Prime Minister Modi said the plant will churn out about 10 million smartphones monthly, 30 percent of which will be exported, and it will serve as an opportunity for Samsung to shore up its position in the global market. He went on to say that Samsung Electronics employs a combined 70,000 people across India, including 5,000 workers in Noida, and the dedication of the new Noida plant would bring 1,000 more jobs.
Samsung Electronics plunked down about 800 billion won to redouble the size of the existing Noida plant to 240,000 sq. meters. The expansion will redouble Samsung Electronics’ smartphone production capacity to 10 million units per month.
President Moon’s meeting with Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee at the ceremony to dedicate the Indian plant may take on significance since it might contribute to recovering soured ties with the President Moon government, pundits and analysts said. Samsung Group is under the intense scrutiny of government agencies on such issues as corporate governance and window dressing settlement for Samsung Biologics.
As such groups as SK and LG announced plans to invest, Large and small, following President Moon and Deputy Prime Minister-MOSF Minister Kim Dong-yeon’s visits, Samsung Electronics is expected to come up with a massive investment plan, business sources said. Samung is reportedly working out a detailed plans related to youth job creation, investment, shared growth and the establishment of an innovative ecosystem, they said.
To Vice Chairman Lee, India is the last country to which he made an official visit before being arrested for his alleged involvement in a scandal surrounding Choi Soon-sil, former President Park Geun-hye’s close acquaintance. Prior to his visit to India, Vice Chairman Lee made three rounds of trips to Europe, North America, China, Hong Kong and China. He focused on meeting with AI, semiconductor and other parts-maker CEOs and company customers and recovering networking with global CEOs, which had been disconnected for about one year, but he had maintained a low profile. Lee’s latest visit to India was the fourth since his release from prison, but his first official trip.
Some analysts predicted that taking advantage of Vice Chairman Lee’s official appearance in the Indian ceremony in which President Moon was present would likely expand his outside management activities, which likely has something to do with the group’s plan to make massive investments and create jobs.