Vietnam’s Vingroup in deal with Fujitsu unit, Qualcomm to make 5G phones

HANOI (Reuters) – Vingroup JSC, Vietnam’s biggest-listed firm by market value, said on Friday it had signed a deal with Qualcomm and a unit of Japan’s Fujitsu Ltd to produce 5G smartphones in the country.

The Vsmart phones will be manufactured at its factory in the capital city of Hanoi and will be sold in the U.S. and European markets from April next year, Vingroup said in a statement.

Earlier this month, the company started construction of the factory that can produce 125 million units a year..

Vingroup launched Vsmart brand in December last year, seeking to win market share from popular brands Samsung and Apple in Vietnam, which has a population of 95 million people.

The company began selling Vsmart phones in Spain in March and plans to expand into other European markets. Its phones went on sale in regional neighbor Myanmar last month.