Sawt Falasteen - Samsung commits $356 bn in investments with 80,000 new jobs

The new figure is an increase of more than a third over its earlier plan announced last year.

The tech giant is South Korea's largest conglomerate and its overall turnover is equivalent to a fifth of the national gross domestic product.

Samsung Electronics, its flagship subsidiary, is the world's biggest smartphone maker.

The investment plan would bring "long-term growth in strategic businesses and help strengthen the global industrial ecosystem of crucial technology", Samsung said in a statement.

The 80,000 new jobs would be created "primarily in core businesses including semiconductors and biopharmaceuticals" through 2026.

It also noted the investment would "bring forward the mass production of chips based on the 3-nanometer process," the latest technology to further shrink down the size of semiconductors and boost computing power.

It will also invest heavily in biopharmaceuticals with its affiliates Samsung Biologics and Samsung Bioepis in the field.

The new plan represents a 36 percent increase in investment over its previous blueprint of 330 trillion won announced in August.

Of the 450 trillion won Samsung plans to spend over the next five years, it will commit 360 billion won to South Korea.

The announcement comes after President Joe Biden toured Samsung Electronics' massive Pyeongtaek semiconductor factory on Friday, underscoring the South Korean company's role in securing global supply chains of microchips, on his first Asia trip as US leader.

South Korea and the United States need to work to "keep our supply chains resilient, reliable and secure," Biden said, calling semiconductors manufactured there as "a wonder of innovation" and crucial to the global economy.

Samsung employs about 20,000 people within the United States and work is underway to build a new semiconductor plant in Texas, scheduled to open in 2024.

E.Qaddoumi--SF-PST