Samsung Display engineers allowed to enter Vietnam without 14-day quarantine
Vietnam has exempted Samsung Display engineers from its 14-day quarantine that is mandated for anyone arriving from South Korea.
Some 700 of the display maker's engineers will be allowed to enter the country and get straight to work without needing to be quarantined for two weeks, according to a Korean media report citing South Korean government officials.
186 engineers have already left Incheon International Airport for Van Don International Airport in Vietnam, the report said. They will go directly to Bac Ninh Province in Northern Vietnam where Samsung Display has its OLED display module factory. They will be separated from existing employees and housed in different quarters.
Prior to making the exemption, Vietnamese authorities inspected Samsung's operations and deemed it sufficient in preventing the spread of COVID-19, the report added. The remaining engineers in South Korea will leave for Vietnam in the coming weeks.
The decision to send the engineers to Vietnam was made to prevent delays in the company's production schedule, the report said.
A Samsung Display spokesperson confirmed the matter but declined to elaborate further.
The decision comes after the South Korean embassy in Vietnam requested for the engineers to be exempt from the country's quarantine procedures when entering the country if they could provide medical examination reports that proved they did not have the virus.
Samsung is the largest single foreign direct investor in Vietnam and accounts for one-fourth of the country's exports.
The company has two handset factories in Vietnam that account for half of its total global production. The company also recently shifted some of its handset production in South Korea to Vietnam to minimise the impact of its employees in South Korea contracting the virus.
Earlier this month, the South Korean tech giant began construction of a $220 million research facility in Hanoi.
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