South Korean multinational giant Samsung, which has set up a television assembly plant in Nawalparasi in collaboration with Him Electronics of Golchha Group, will start assembling its LED television sets from early next month.

The company said that the factory construction is in the final stages and television production will begin from March.

“We plan to produce televisions from the first week of March,” said Sung June Park, managing director of Samsung Nepal, at a press meeting organised in Kathmandu during the visit of Jang Sung Min, special envoy of the South Korean President. “We plan to produce as many as 30,000 television sets in 2023.”

The capacity of the assembly plant, according to him, is 300,000 sets per year, and the production can be increased as per the demand in the market.

Former Industry Minister Dilendra Prasad Badu had laid the foundation for the factory in August last year. Samsung said that all the equipment had arrived in Nepal by January to produce television units.

Nepal does not have many multinational companies operating in the country and the entry of Samsung could help attract more multinational companies to set up production units here.

Samsung is among the leading multinationals in the world. “With Samsung, we hope that Korean private sector companies will be interested in Nepal,” said Special Envoy Jang at the press meet.

Though Samsung will first start producing televisions in Nepal, it will also conduct a study about producing other electronic products in the country.

“We will conduct a feasibility study about the possibility of manufacturing Samsung mobile phones and other electronic goods as well,” said Park Seug Hee, president and head of corporate relations.

Besides television and mobile sets, Samsung also produces refrigerators, microwave ovens, air purifiers, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, air conditioners, monitors, and sound bars, among other things.

According to him, Samsung has been providing training to Nepali workers about the technology with the aim of producing televisions. Nepal imported as many as 62,692 television sets worth Rs1.3 billion during the first six months of the current fiscal year.