http://vneconomy.vn: Weekend Café: “Once take up business you should devote yourself for it”

“Having coffee” with VnEconomy during the tea break of the NA group discussion, Mr. Quy disclosed that he is nurturing and step by step developing the proposal to build the national road No1 to be the ‘Reunification Avenue’. Mr. Quy, however, is humble when saying that this is an idea of a number of people and he only plays a role of a ‘General Secretary’.

So, did you share the idea with Minister Đinh La Thăng?

No, not yet, because I want to make sure myself, then some experts would be invited for comments before submission to the Executive Committee of the NA and the Minister.

In case the idea is realized the traffic accidents and congestions will be reduced significantly. And the problem of spreading investment for new airports, seaports can be avoided.

When Mr. Hong Minh from Nghệ An Delegation and Mr. Nguyễn Bá Thanh told about current problems of the road, not only me, but Nghe An and other delegations share the same concern.

I do not have much chance to talk to Minister Đinh La Thăng, but I feel he is a man of business with tough character and decisiveness.

 We cannot always do everything we want to, but once we decided we should devote ourselves with all our heart. Many voters recently have a very good impression about Mr. Thang devotion and decisiveness.

Photo: Deputy Phan Văn Quý, Chairman, President of Pacific Corporation

Specifically saying, what is yours personal contribution for the realization of the idea?

I can give Mr. Thăng my word that together with foreign business partners we can investigate possibility of arranging finance for some tender packages and can raise investment for some part of the road or some bridges in accordance with current applicable Government regulations.

While doing other businesses with foreign partners, I told them about this idea. They all encouraged me and it makes me more confident. Of course the Proposal will be submitted when it becomes mature. And, as I said earlier, I appreciate comments, so reputable experts will be invited for comments.

Now you see, the road traffic is terrible and travelling becomes time-consuming and dangerous. The investment in building railways or airport did not always appear to be efficient. Let’s imagine the National Road No1 with dozen lanes is built; we would not need such many seaports or airports anymore.

Just for example, when travelling to Nghe An, it takes me one hour to get the Noi Bai airport, one hour for check-in and getting onboard, another one hour flying, 3 hours in total. It may take me the same time travelling by road if the road condition is good enough.

Are you concerned about someone may think that this idea is bias to benefit your own business?

I don’t think so, because beside the public investment from the state budget the Government is encouraging involvement of domestic and foreign private investors through the BOT, BTO, BT and PPP investment schemes. Thus, what we are doing is fully in line with the Government policy.

You said you support Minister Thăng action. You must remember when debating in the hall discussion, Minister Thăng proposed the NA to allocate 40.000bn from oil and gas export for development of road infrastructure. The Deputy Tran Du Lich expressed his agreement  with three conditions; the first among them is the elimination of the black dealing in road construction businesses. Do you think the Minister should accept such conditions?

Mr. Trần Du Lịch as I see is very sharp in his thought and idea about economy during the hall discussion. For example, when discussing the state budget he proposed to discuss which economic sectors shall be privileged, first; then, the budget plan shall be determined. Otherwise, the so called beg- grant mechanism will come back again.

 However, it would be very difficult for Minister Thang alone, because fighting with the black dealing should be a job of the whole system. Beside personal matter, there is a problem of the whole system.

 
If needed it’s better ‘a pain’ now

Let’s come back to the road idea with the Minister Thăng when you submit official proposal. During this NA Session, one of the big debate at the hall discussion is the restructuring the economy, you must have much interest in it, don’t you?

In my opinion, there is no other way to bear the pain to restructure the economy. Many experts forecast that this time the difficulty is more lengthy and different from the one in 2008. It requires the restructure of the business, the investment portfolio and productions and services.

Photo: Mr. Phan Van Quy - member of Congressman is making a speech on the 2nd meeting of the XIII National Assembly

In the NA forum, Mr. Mai Hữu Tín, a businessman expressed his desire that the Government must look at the reality that a number of small businesses is half dead nowadays. Unless the significant support is available, the debt interest rate is under 15% and inflation rate is less than 10% per year, Mr. Tin said, he is afraid many businesses will not exist anymore in one year time and it will cause a very bad impact to the economy. Do you share this view?

I am happy that the economy restructuring policy has been expressed strongly recently, though it a bit late.

One of three major objectives of the Government policy is restructuring the state-owned businesses. In my view, private businesses have also had pain to restructure their business lines. In other word, you should only do yours successful businesses and give up loss business even costly. For instance, many real estate companies are dumping their products. It’s the right thing to do now, even it’s very painful.

Does your company have real estate business and are you affected by the current ‘storm’?

The real estate is one of our major businesses in addition to industry and mining businesses. Some years ago, the real estate business was our major businesses, but now it’s the industry business. It resulted from our business restructure taking place from 2008.

Is it ‘painful’? Can you share with us.

It’s very painful indeed. In 2004 – 2006 we invested in Banking and Security businesses. In 2008, after analyzing the business circumstances we decided to stop making further investment in the banking and security industries, accepting losses by 70% from security business. Now, focusing in core businesses we feel confident ourselves.

Oh, you were involved in banking business, which is under a sensitive situation now, especially in the context of the economy restructuring.

You could see yourself; it is a very hot topic at the NA Forum.

I share the view of Mr. Nguyễn Bá Thanh, Deputy of Đà Nẵng Delegation that the economy turmoil, if any in the future can be because of current weak banking corporations.

Most of global economic crises occurred from financial and banking crises. I think reorganizing the banking system is a right thing, but it doesn’t mean dismiss of small banks. We should keep those who well maintain transparency, efficiency, good management of the business. We, on the other hand, do not expect it will be fast, as it may significantly affect the economy.

Do you have any more suggestion for the business society how to cope the current difficult situation?

I think even in difficult circumstances there are opportunities. The matter is the business corporations to find and catch it.

How many employees are there in your Company and is their income stable?

We do not have such a big number of labors, like other business companies in manufacturing and services sectors. However, we always assure the labors with stable income in term of salary, allowances and bonuses. Especially, we have adopted the system to give additional allowance to fill the gap of annual inflation.

According to what you said the business of the Company is fairly good, so does it mean that you can share more energy for the job of the people’s representative?

As I shared with you, I run for NA election in order to have chance to speak out the voice of people and business society at the larger forum. As you know the NA is now discussing and passing some law resolutions, such as Marine Law, Labour Law, and Money Insurance Law etc. I will do my best to contribute to it.