Samsung Electronics Co. plans to invest $700 million into a new mobile phone factory soon to be built in Vietnam as part of efforts to expand its global production lines, company officials said Saturday.

Samsung Electronics Vietnam Co. (SEV), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the world's top mobile phone maker by revenue, is weighing two locations in northern Vietnam -- a farming region of Thai Nguyen and Hai Phong, a harbor city -- for the factory, they said.

Currently, the company is leaning toward the former, a company source privy to the matter said.

"Vietnam is a dynamic country with great potential for growth.

We'll push for a second phase of our investment project in the country," Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee told reporters when visited Hanoi this week.

In Hanoi, Lee met with Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai to ask for support for the investment, Samsung officials said. 

 Samsung's Vietnamese subsidiary has been operating a mobile phone factory in a northeastern rural district of Yen Phong since 2009, with its annual production capacity reaching 150 million units, according to the company.

Samsung, embroiled in a patent war with Apple Inc., has been vying for dominance in the $219 billion global smartphone market through aggressive investment in emerging countries. (Yonhap News)