Vinfast: An express speed

Vo Quang Hue, Deputy General Director of Vingroup and supervisor of Vinfast, shared his thoughtfulness with TheLEADER on the occasion of Vinfast's acquisition of BMW's intellectual property rights for car development and production.

What is the biggest motivation for you to devote yourself to the dream of building an automobile industry for Vietnam?

Vo Quang Hue: When Vietnam was still at war, I was studying in Germany and like many other young people, I wanted my country to be peaceful so I could return and contribute to Vietnam.

However, I had worked for Germany's BMW Group since 1980 and until 1996 that means after 16 years of work, I had chance of coming back to Vietnam as a leader in a project that brought middle and high level of BMW products to enter Vietnamese market.

I still remember the happy moment when the world's top car at this time was manufactured and assembled in Vietnam.

At that time, I just wondered that why Vietnam did not become the center for automotive parts production in the region. I thought and concerned about how to develop supporting industries as well as automobile production industry in Vietnam, which I shared with my friends. However, unfortunately, it was not successful.

In 2006, I met the manager of the Robert Bosch Group on a flight from Egypt to Singapore and then, he invited me to set up Bosch's company in Vietnam.

Although it was not clear about what Bosch would do in Vietnam at that time, I decided to come back Vietnam because my last wish was to do what is best for my country.

What makes you decide to join Vinfast and open a new dream for the automobile industry in Vietnam?

Vo Quang Hue: I thought that I would work for Bosch until I retire and I also thought that I could not start again at this age. However, when I met Vuong (Mr. Pham Nhat Vuong, president of Vingroup), I was really surprised by the plan of setting a Vietnam car manufacture brand that I was invited to participate by Vuong.

I feel a great spirit from Vuong that he truly wants to do this project and one much more important thing is that it meets my big dream.

In order to ensure Germany quality and Vietnam price, how did Vinfast do in convincing BMW to sell intellectual property rights and Italian designers to sell sedan and SUV models in a very short time?

Vo Quang Hue: Vuong took advantage of all opportunities for doing this project successfully.

I joined the Vinfast delegation which was assigned to Italy to contact and connect with the European industrial centers helping Vinfast in researching new models.

In a first meeting with BMW, I also took part in as a link leading to Vinfast's decision on buying BMW's license. When thinking back, I cannot imagine how suddenly I became as agile as a young man.

Having worked for BMW for 24 years and 8 months, I know that it is difficult and takes a long time to have intellectual property rights for manufacturing but unexpectedly, it took Vinfast only five months.

The Vinfast automobile project has a express speed, which surprised people having specialist knowledge in this industry. I was also surprised by the vigorous spirit of Vingroup and the creative colleagues at Vinfast.

Do you believe that Vinfast will keep its commitment on launching electric motorcycles after one year, five - seat Sedan and seven - seat SUV after two years, electric cars after three years with the localization rate of 60 per cent?

Vo Quang Hue: Many people are still incredulous about this future but what Vinfast has done during the last five months showed that this project is really reliable.

High speed and decision are Vingroup's strengths compared to other corporations.

Living in Vingroup, I penetrate into its 'forever entrepreneurial spirit' culture with strong actions and high determination.

My desire is that not only Vingroup but also many other Vietnamese companies will keep that spirit, which will help Vietnam grow fast.

Thank you very much!