National Australia Bank keeps expanding investment in Vietnam

National Australia Bank (NAB) continues to grow its investment in Vietnam, increasing its workforce by around 92% over the past 12 months across Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, it announced Friday.

NAB Group CEO Ross McEwan and Patrick Wright, group executive for technology and enterprise operations, last week visited NAB’s teams in Vietnam, coinciding with celebrations for the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Australia and Vietnam.

NAB, Australia’s second-largest bank, in 2019 launched the NAB Innovation Center Vietnam to tap into the country’s rich pool of technology talent to help it deliver great digital experiences for the bank’s eight million customers.

"The vast majority of our customer interactions now happen online and we are investing heavily to deliver the great digital experiences our customers expect from us," McEwan said in his bank’s Friday announcement.

"This move towards digital has only been accelerated by Covid and has coincided with a skills shortage in Australia. To address that we’re building a global workforce and tapping into markets like Vietnam that have a real depth of talent in digital, data and technology to complement our teams in Australia.

"It’s great to see how this investment is having a meaningful impact on the Vietnamese technology community and their economy."

During the past three years, the NAB Innovation Center Vietnam has grown quickly with three offices opened across Hanoi and HCMC, employing hundreds of software developers, data scientists, digital designers, software engineers and data analysts.

Wright, group executive for technology and enterprise operations, said NAB’s innovation centers in Vietnam were playing a crucial role in the bank’s ability to deliver on its ambitions for customers.

"Vietnam is one of the fastest growing digital economies in the world and is putting significant investment into skill development," he said.

"Our teams in Vietnam work in concert with our teams in Australia and are delivering projects that make a real difference to the lives of our customers. We want our teams to feel deeply connected to what we’re trying to achieve no matter if they are working in Australia, Vietnam or somewhere else.

"As well as working on meaningful projects, we are also investing in the continued development of our people. We provide our colleagues with hands-on industry-recognized training and development courses, as well as life skills such as learning English."

NAB has also kicked off a series of diverse programs to empower and develop students’ career directions, promote gender diversity, and assist career switchers joining the IT industry to contribute to the growth of the local technology sector in Vietnam.

In 2022, more than 120 students completed the graduate program and many of them have become full-time employees of NAB Innovation Center Vietnam, according to the bank.

This investment means NAB is now one of Australia’s largest private foreign investors in Vietnam.

Andrew Goledzinowski, Australia’s ambassador to Vietnam, said in the release: "NAB’s success in the Vietnamese market shows how valuable commercial collaboration between Australia and Vietnam can be. It is an example of our capabilities combining to create a real impact, boosting productivity and innovation for the benefit of both our economies."