By Kim Yoo-chul Staff Reporter Samsung Electronics has confirmed its plans to build a plant to produce handsets and printers in the northern part of Vietnam with a consolidated production capacity of over 100 million units. ``We are engaging in talks for the construction of handsets and printers in the Southeast Asian country,’’ a spokesperson from Samsung Electronics told The Korea Times, Sunday on condition of anonymity. ``Hopefully, we could get a `green light’ from the Vietnamese government soon for those businesses,’’ the official added. The factory, which is likely to be built in Bach Dang, some 170 kilometers north of Hanoi, will exceed the company’s handset production in the line of South Korea’s southeastern city of Gumi after completion, according to Samsung officials. The news has been interpreted as Samsung’s strategy to boost overseas production to narrow the market gap with the industry leader Nokia. The company’s overseas output accounts for about half of its total production. ``We expect to supply 200 million handsets in 2008, up from some 157 million units this year,’’ another Samsung official said. Samsung currently operates handsets plants in Gumi at home and Tianjin, Shenzhen, and Haizhou in China, Delhi in India and Campinas in Brazil. The company recently said it will construct the second Indian plant in Chennai over a tract of 330,000 square meters to meet rising demand in the Indian market. Asked about the possible production capacity of printers, the spokesperson declined to elaborate. Samsung sees the printer business as one of its next growth engines in the future, ``The key to boosting competitiveness in the handsets industry is to cut parts and labor costs. Nokia procures only 20 percent of parts supplies in the local market, maintaining its leadership in the low-end mobile market around the world,’’ said a local securities analyst, adding that labor costs in China, India and Vietnam are one-tenth those in South Korea. yckim@koreatimes.co.kr