Saigon Invest Group: An Icon in International Cooperation

Saigon Invest Group (SGI) is one of the leading developers of industrial parks, hi-tech parks, urban zones and other business fields in Vietnam. Vietnam Business Forum has a talk with Mr Dang Thanh Tam, President of the Board of Directors of SGI, on the company’s business activities.

SGI has made significant contributions to the socioeconomic development of Vietnam as well as social development and charity activities. Could you talk about some achievements?

SGI not only makes success in business activities but also takes care of improving living standards of its staff and takes part in social, charity, education and health development activities. In 2008, high-ranking leaders of SGI visited Laos and granted VND15 billion. Then, on the next visit to Laos during the Lao New Year (Bpee Mai), SGI donated another VND5 billion and US$2.2 million. The group also visited and presented VND10 billion to poor Khmer people in Tra Vinh province, VND5 billion to Da Nang Cancer Hospital, VND5 billion to Kien Giang province and US$300,000 to the Global Summit of Women in Vietnam. The total grant for social development activities in 2008 amounted to over VND100 billion (nearly US$6 million), making the group one of the most generous companies in Vietnam.

In 2009, SGI financed Vovinam martial arts tournament, U21 Thanh Nien Newspaper football tournament, and elderly people care fund, etc. Especially, the group also funded some US$2 million to the SGI Friendship Scholarship Fund which sponsored nearly 100 Laotian students to study at university in Vietnam in five years from 2009 to 2013. Most recently, in the music show themed “Sharing one heart – For the poor people in Ninh Thuan” on October 17, 2009, SGI was not only the sole sponsor for the music show but also decided to grant VND20 billion to socioeconomic, poverty reduction and other social programmes in Ninh Thuan province.

SGI is very proud of “joining hands with the community” activities by combining the group’s business development with local socioeconomic development activities in Vietnam and other nations. These programmes will be expanded and developed in the following years.

Could you talk about SGI’s recent major projects and activities?

SGI has invested in building a factory to process titanium slag and titanium products in Ninh Phuoc and Thuan Nam districts, Ninh Thuan province. This factory with the total investment capital of VND1,000 billion (nearly US$60 million) is the second largest of its kind in Southeast Asia. This project will help promote the socioeconomic development in Ninh Thuan province in the following years.

Saigon Construction Corp (SCC), a member of SGI, has kicked off the construction on a 50,000 sq.m factory with a total investment capital of VND200 billion in Hung Phu 1 Industrial Park in Can Tho City. This will be the most modern factory to be built in Hung Phu Industrial Park and will serve investors from 2010.

Kinhbac City Development Share Holding Corporation (KBC), a member of SGI, signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Kumho Industrial Co., Ltd of South Korea. Under the deal, KBC will grant precedence to Kumho in KBC’s projects, even the Lang Ha high-rise building complex in Hanoi and five-star hotel, apartment, shopping centre and office complexes in Hanoi if the South Korean contractor meets high quality and competitiveness requirements. Furthermore, Kumho also pledged to provide the best management and construction quality.

You have said that the role of the leader is decisive to the success of a company. How have you employed your role as a leader to govern SGI?

At present, it is an urgent matter to promote corporate culture and build corporate tradition and prestige. Corporate culture building is first of all the responsibility of senior managers. This is a long and arduous process and requires their knowledge, judicious viewpoints, strong beliefs and burning inspiration. Like other works, it is only persuasive when it serves common goals. The corporate culture building is aimed to serve the common interest of the company. The company must build up a system of regulations involving in professional matters such as perfection and transparency of works based on the harmony of authority and accountability; rights and duties; knowledge and skills; spirit and behaviour; compliance process and work analysis, etc. so that leaders will have judicious decisions and employees believe and respect their managers and know what they are doing. In short, corporate culture building is a standard method to popularise the national image.

SGI now has more than 10,000 employees nationwide. Possibly, the human factor is a complex matter in operating a corporate apparatus, especially in a growing economic unit like SGI. Therefore, as a leader, I always have scientific and systematic human resource building, training and management strategies to create a unified body to fuel the energy for the group’s successes. In the current context of economic slump, if the leader is not brave, employees will lose jobs. So, the role of the leader is very important and decisive to the success of a company.

As a leader of a leading company in Vietnam, what message would you like deliver to investors from 21 APEC member economies?

Arguably, Vietnamese enterprises are more mature and developed after three years of WTO entry. Domestic companies are taking part in many national key projects that could only be handled by foreign firms. SGI is one of those companies.

SGI has signed agreements with many world-leading groups. For instance, SGI inked a pact with International Power Group on building a 1,200 MW thermal power plant worth US$1.5 billion in central Vietnam. And, this reaffirmed the right policies of the State and Party in creating a favourable business and investment environment for Vietnamese and foreign companies. Besides, the economic stimulus package launched by the Vietnamese Government has generated expected effects and brought the Vietnamese economy out of a global economic crisis.

Vietnam’s sustainable development strategy is advancing the application of new technologies in the industrialisation and modernisation process, attracting more domestic and foreign investment resources, promoting high-quality human resource training and completing the market economy regime. The government and competent organs regularly check and always collect feedbacks to amend and supplement legal regulations (up to 80 percent of laws have been supplemented) to create a more favourable and complete system for an international business environment. Therefore, this is also the good time and opportunity for foreign investors to survey the market and do business in Vietnam.

SGI now has more than 10,000 shareholders and over 10,000 employees and has invested over US$2 billion. SGI has more than 40 member companies and manages 20 industrial parks in the country which are serving a number of foreign investors. The group also helps attract more than US$5 billion of foreign investment into Vietnam and these investors generated an annual export turnover of US$1 billion plus and paid hundreds of millions of US dollars to the State Budget each year.

Tags: Saigon Invest Group, Vietnam business news, Vietnam enterprise