Employees pass a billboard advertisement for the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 on the way to work at the Samsung factory in Thai Nguyen province, north of Hanoi, Vietnam October 13, 2016. REUTERS/Kham
THAI NGUYEN, Vietnam: As Samsung Electronics struggles to salvage its reputation after the safety problems that have beset its flagship Galaxy Note 7 smartphone, the South Korean company can at least bank on an army of Vietnamese workers for support.
Tens of thousands of them are involved in assembling more than a third of Samsung's smartphones – the Galaxy Note 7 included – in the Pho Yen area of Thai Nguyen province, which is about 65km north of the Vietnamese capital Hanoi. Samsung's arrival three years ago transformed it from a sleepy farming district into a sprawling industrial town.
