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Vietnamese businesses full of vitality: experts
Vietnamese businesses have been surviving and growing well despite great challenges.
Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet, Director of Nhat Hai Technology Project Company, related that her company has experienced a lot of ups and downs. In May-June 2008, she sought to buy dollars from banks to make payments for imports to foreign partners. However, the bank she contacted demanded sky-high prices, much higher than the ceiling levels allowed by the State Bank of Vietnam.
If Tuyet had agreed to buy dollars at the exchange rates required by the bank, the company would have suffered the loss of several hundred million VND. If she had made late payments and accepted fines for late payments, the loss would have been less than several hundred million VND.
“I called the bank once again, stating that if the bank still forced my company to purchase dollars at high prices, I would stop cooperating with the bank and make public the bank’s violation of the forex regulations. Everybody would know that the bank sold dollars at prices higher than the allowed levels,” Tuyet said.
Finally, the bank accepted to reduce dollar prices as it realised that Tuyet’s company is a loyal client, which always makes big transactions.
Businessmen said at the Vietnam Golden Star award ceremony held in Hanoi on September 2 that they had never experienced so many difficulties as they had in the last eight months. Right after the Tet holiday, a lot of businesses faced a labour shortage crisis, as a lot of workers left their jobs. After that, they had to struggle to survive, when input material prices skyrocketed, and the VND/US$ exchange rates fluctuated all the time.
Viet Long Trading Company had to cut its sales target from VND500bil to VND350bil, while trying to cut expenses. Viet Long’s General Director Phi Duc Luc said that his company applied a new software which allows it to improve its corporate governance skill.
Nguyen Phuong Nam, General Director of Robot Company, said that he tried to retain his staffs by offering attractive salaries and bonuses, accepting lower profit. Meanwhile, Nam tried to maintain advertisement campaigns that aimed to polish the company’s image, while other businesses cut expenses on advertisements and PR activities which they thought unnecessary at that time.
According to Kieu Huu Dung, Chairman of ACB Securities Company, Vietnamese businesses have powerful vitality. “In the last eight months, Vietnamese businesses showed that they could gather their strength when they were pushed against the wall,” said Dung, who has worked for many international institutions and been director of a department at the State Bank of Vietnam.
Dung said that the unpredictable happenings in the world this year have hurt a lot of Vietnamese businesses. Therefore, they have had to apply suitable policies which are flexible enough to adapt to the rapid changes in the world’s market.
Sharing the same view as Dung, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Cam Tu said that only the businesses with high adaptive capabilities can exist.
Tu said that several days ago, he signed a decision to merge the company in which he used to work into PetroVietnam Group. The company, which was once a famous company, now is just a subsidiary of PetroVietnam. Bien said that if Vietnamese businesses do not improve themselves they will suffer much more, as Vietnam is integrating more deeply into the world.
Dung from ACB Securities said that the macroeconomy will stabilise in 2009; however, GDP growth will slow down in the last two quarters of 2008 and the whole of 2009.
VNE
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