Innovation & Benefits

For the young generation in the late 80s and early 90s, Russia in our memory was a snow-covered land, was melodious notes of Russian songs: “Two banks”, “Birch”, and was images of generous and enthusiastic Russian people, fragrant apple orchards, etc.

When we first arrived in the land of birches, we international students only had one dream, which was starting a simple life like everyone else after returning home and working for a government agency or a university. None of us had the ambition to pursue doing business.

But in 1991, when the Berlin Wall fell, in an instant, the Russian economy turned around. Many Russian people overnight fell into extremely difficult situations and their income was not enough to live on. As for us, international students, the amount of scholarships granted each month only covered half of our time there. Choosing to stay and continue our studies and graduate in Russia meant that we had to find a way to earn money.

Fortunately, thanks to the strong friendship between the two countries, Russia still created conditions for many Vietnamese to come for work and studies in the early 90s. A Vietnamese community was formed in Moscow. Many Vietnamese people found business opportunities when there was a serious shortage of raw materials, food, and goods.

Seeing the opportunity and obtaining an operating license from the government, we began to invest in converting a stadium in Moscow into a market, with the desire for Vietnamese people in Russia to come and do business. However, what we did not anticipate during the long snowy nights on the cold construction site was how to attract small traders to the market. The first week the market opened, it was empty without a single person. Without thinking too long, I decided to directly call each individual. For each person who came to the market to sell their products, they were given a few dozen dollars, even if they could not sell their products. Only a month later, small traders including Vietnamese and Russian people took turns queuing to buy tickets to get inside the market.

Recalling the time more than 20 years ago, when Nam Thang Shoe Factory was about to expand its operation model with 4 production lines and relocate to the Industrial Park in Pho Noi (Hung Yen), there was an unexpected thing happened. The time when the industrial park was just competed was also the time when Lifan Motorcycle Group (specializing in vehicle production) searched for a factory in the North and wanted to rent our premises. That was an opportunity and TNG Holdings Vietnam promptly seized it to expand its investment in industrial real estate. That deal is even more meaningful when Lifan was the first industrial cluster to be effectively exploited and make a great contribution to Hung Yen province’s budget, especially in the context that this locality was just separated from another province with the toal budget of only VND 70 billion.

In the early 2000s, Nam Sach Industrial Park (Hai Duong) was invested. At that time, the traffic was still not convenient, but I was still at the construction site every day to encourage the spirit of the staff members and also to monitor the progress. I was ready to wade into the rice field to check how shallow it was. No one asked me to do that, but I understood it was the responsibility of the leader to be able to inspire the staff members. And until today, TNG Holdings Vietnam still upholds the principle of “The leaders set an example for employees”.

However, the price of the breakthrough was not cheap. When the construction of Nam Sach Industrial Park was just completed with an investment of about VND 100 billion, the SARS pandemic occurred (in 2003). Because Vietnam is located in the right center of the epidemic, no enterprise wanted to rent space in Nam Sach Industrial Park. At that time, the bank interest rate was up to 18%/year, which meant that for every year that passes, when there were no tenants, we had to pay VND 18 billion in interest. This was not a small number for a business just starting out in the field of industrial real estate.

We all had to come up with a plan to attract investors in different ways. We constantly presented our projects and even made commitments. Fortunately, after only one year, the rent places in Nam Sach Industrial Park were occupied as planned. We understand that obstacles in life are great teachers for those who have the desire to strive and rise.