Vietnam businesses “surf thousands of waves” to survive: businessman

Difficulty is a word that we have mentioned a lot recently. What difficulties has your company been facing?

After Covid-19, geopolitical tensions have caused oil prices to escalate, making life miserable for businesses.

At the beginning of this year, we should have started construction on two large projects, including a 700-apartment project in the center of Binh Duong province in southern Vietnam, and a beach resort project in Tuy Phong district, the central province of Binh Dinh, but we could not implement these plans due to the impacts of the corporate bond crisis involving large enterprises such as FLC, Tan Hoang Minh and Van Thinh Phat.

These firms issued too many bonds which they did not have enough time or financial capacity to repay, creating a domino effect across the entire industry. In addition, high inflation and fuel prices have prompted people to buy gold for storage.

Real estate developers need capital right now, and many are selling their products at 40-50% discounts just to survive. Therefore, we plan to delay these projects until 2025 to get through this difficult period. That's my strategy. Other developers may still choose to continue with their projects at this time, but I will take a wait-and-see approach.

As the person at the helm, how do you navigate through these challenges?

I choose the term "surfing thousands of waves" to talk about businesses in the current context. The nature of entrepreneurs is to endure hardships so they can continue to overcome a mountain of difficulties. New challenges often come with new opportunities, so just keep going.

Personally, I have my own strategies such as improving products and focusing on the core of each product. We must show the culture and origin of products so that customers understand them, which makes them more likely to buy from us.

People often liken entrepreneurs to "soldiers" on the "economic front". Besides honoring their efforts and contributions, what shortcomings do we need to recognize to fix and maximize potential in the coming time?

Besides product reform, marketing, and business restructuring, capital mobilization is what businesses are most concerned about today. Capital comes not only from banks but from friends, relatives, and especially partners.

In Vietnam, entrepreneurs often consider their company “their own sky”. Looking to the world, for many foreign entrepreneurs, selling their current business to start a new business is very normal. They can also sell their company to other shareholders and then buy back or even accept a lower position in or leave the company, like the case of Steve Jobs, co-founder of tech giant Apple.

I think businesses should be more open, because capital will help them become "healthier". While international capital sources of large corporations are still abundant, major domestic corporations are facing many difficulties, not to mention small and medium-sized enterprises with low competitiveness. Although now is a difficult period, it is also the time to help these businesses move forward if they know how to seize opportunities.

You were one of the three biggest contributors to community activities in 2023 in Ho Chi Minh City. Could you share more about your efforts?

My strategy and Thanh Thanh Cong's motto is to be willing to cooperate with everyone to create profits and increase community values.

As chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Club (HREC), I have tried to connect and inspire businesspeople and club members to join hands in building bridges for people in remote areas in HCMC and neighboring provinces. We have financed the construction of over 80 bridges, with a total value of more than VND100 billion ($4.09 million). Of which, 10 were funded by me. Each bridge cost from VND500 million to VND3 billion ($122,700). These bridges are quite sturdy and wide enough for cars and trucks to cross.

Returning to a place where one of my bridges was built after about two years, we realized that many people there are better off. Building a bridge is not simply an act of charity, but also brings lasting benefits to the people. It's like when we give fishing rods to help disadvantaged people earn a living, instead of giving them fish.