Samsung scion Lee to leave for Vietnam this week

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong will head to Vietnam this week on a business trip aimed at checking Samsung's key smartphone production lines amid a decline in its global market share, industry sources said Sunday.

    Lee is scheduled to leave on Tuesday and stop at Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city, sources familiar with the matter said. The purpose of the trip is to check factories in Vietnam and meet with government and industry officials there, according to the sources. 

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong in India in August (Yonhap)

    The sources declined to give further details about Lee's itineraries, citing that part of his schedule is yet to be determined.

    It will be Lee's seventh overseas trip since he was released from jail early this year on a suspended prison term for bribery conviction linked to a corruption scandal involving a previous South Korean president.

    Samsung runs its largest offshore smartphone production facilities in Vietnam. (Yonhap)