Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., an electronics contract manufacturer, plans to invest $1 billion (U.S.) to build factories here.

“Vietnam’s general investment environment is pretty good,” said Edmund C.A. Ding, a spokesman for the company said. “We’ve considered the logistics and the company’s supply chain, and we’ve taken into account the opinion of our existing and target customers.”

Ding said the company has yet to pick a location for the production site, though it favors the northern Vietnam region. Hon Hai expects mass production at its planned Vietnam factories to begin “within a year,” he added.

Hon Hai, a contract maker of an array of electronics and parts, including motherboards and connectors, already has factories in Taiwan, China, Brazil, the Czech Republic and Ireland.

The Hon Hai group, which includes Foxconn International Holdings Ltd., is a contract supplier of iPod for Apple Computer Inc. and mobile phones for Nokia Corp.

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