The Vietnamese government granted a license to electronics manufacturer Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd., or Foxconn, to set up a $270 million production plant for laptops and tablets.

The Taiwan-headquartered company will build its factory in Vietnam's Bac Giang province, with an expected capacity of producing 8 million laptops and tablets annually.

According to a Jan. 18 report published by the Vietnam government's online newspaper VGP News, Foxconn has so far invested $1.5 billion in Vietnam and intends to increase its investment by $700 million and hire an additional 10,000 local workers this year.

Foxconn was earlier reported to be planning to shift production of some of Apple Inc.'s iPads and MacBooks to Vietnam from China following a request from the U.S. tech company as part of efforts to diversify production and mitigate the effects of a trade war between the U.S. and China.