Vietnam has awarded a licence to South Korea's LG Display that will see it raise its investment in the northern port city of Haiphong by $1 billion, the city's authorities said late on Thursday.

The investment will boost the company's OLED display output at its Haiphong factory and raise its total investment in Vietnam to $5.65 billion, according to a document from the Haiphong Economic Zone Authority, Reuters reported quoting the local authorities.

The $1 billion investment will be channelled into expanding LG Display's existing manufacturing facilities in Vietnam, focusing on the production of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) and liquid crystal display (LCD) panels. The company aims to enhance its production capacity to meet the increasing demand for these display technologies, which are used in a wide range of consumer electronics, from smartphones to televisions.

This move follows a previous investment of $1.5 billion made by LG Display in 2021 to establish and upgrade its facilities in Vietnam. With the latest expansion, LG Display seeks to strengthen its foothold in the region, which has become an attractive hub for electronics manufacturing due to its competitive costs and skilled workforce.

LG Display's Role in Next-Generation Display Technologies

LG Display was selected as the lead company for the national project to develop Stretchable displays in 2020 and since then has been conducting joint R&D with 19 domestic industry and research institutes. It is one of the major tasks of a wider project to develop core technologies for next-generation displays promoted by South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) along with the Korea Planning & Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology.

On November 8, LG Display introduced a pioneering stretchable display capable of expanding by 50%, marking the highest elongation rate in the display industry. The prototype, presented at LG Science Park in Seoul, features a 12-inch screen that stretches up to 18 inches while maintaining a high resolution of 100 pixels per inch and vibrant RGB color.

CTO Soo-young Yoon emphasized the company's commitment to building a robust partnership across South Korea's display sector, paving the way for competitive applications of stretchable displays in diverse industries. 

LG Display's new panel, which doubles the stretch rate of the initial prototype introduced in 2022, holds promise for applications in wearable tech, fashion, and automotive interfaces. The enhanced stretchability and durability allow the display to withstand over 10,000 stretches while maintaining image clarity, even in extreme conditions.