On the first day of the Lunar New Year in 2022, the Chinese men's football team lost to Vietnam for the first time in the 8th round of the Asian zone of the World Cup qualifiers, bidding farewell to the Qatar World Cup in advance. Nine years ago, in an interview, the famous Fan Zhiyi said the famous sentence - "I will lose Vietnam next, and the face of Chinese football will not be wanted", which turned out to be true.
When many people think of this country, they may think of "Vietnamese brides" and "motorcycles". Originally poor and backward, Vietnam has become one of the fastest growing countries in Southeast Asia and even the world. According to The Forbes Real-Time Rich List, vietnam's richest man is 53-year-old Pham Nhat Vuong, who is worth $7.6 billion, or about 48.3 billion yuan.
As the first Vietnamese billionaire to be listed on the Forbes Rich List, he is known as "Vietnamese Li Ka Shing". He is used to taking the initiative in the business field, "entrepreneurship is to attack, not to defend", but he is very low-key and rarely appears in media reports.
Born in the 1960s into an ordinary family in Ha Tinh province, central Vietnam, three siblings rely on their mother to sell tea on the side of the road to make ends meet. Despite the difficult conditions, he did not leave his studies behind, and went to Moscow to study after entering the Hanoi University of Mining geology. After graduation, he used the $10,000 he cobbled together to open a Vietnamese restaurant in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and embarked on the road to entrepreneurship.
During the opening of the store, Pan Riwang found that Ukrainians were particularly in demand for cheap and satisfying instant noodles. He immediately made a decision, and together with several friends, jointly invested in a food company called Technocom, launched the fast food brand Divina, and successfully earned the first pot of gold. Since then, the scale has gradually expanded, producing hundreds of kinds of food, and also expanding its business to the field of dehydrated mixed ingredients and exporting to dozens of countries around the world.
In 2001, Phan Ri-Wan returned to Vietnam to develop, and the following year founded Vincom in Hanoi, engaged in the development of large shopping malls, high-end office buildings and apartments. Keenly aware of the untapped tourism industry, he founded Vinpear to create five-star hotels, luxury resorts, beach villas, water parks and golf courses. Ten years ago he merged the two companies, and Vingroup was born.
Located in Ho Chi Minh City's busiest central park area, the 461.3-metre-high Landmark Tower 81, the "tallest building in Southeast Asia", was developed by The Winner Group with an investment of US$1.4 billion and integrates hotels, upscale apartments and retail.
Vietnam's largest private enterprise, its business in addition to real estate, hotels, tourism and entertainment, but also covers retail, automotive, education, agriculture and so on. It has more than ten well-known sub-brands, including Vinfast, Vietnam's first local car brand, and Vinsmart, the first "Made in Vietnam" mobile phone.
For a long time, Vietnam's local automobile manufacturing was OEM, and parts were all imported. Determined to break that, Pan Riwang invited former GM executive Jim De Luka to take the helm of VinFas and signed contracts with suppliers such as ABB, Bosch, Magna Steyr, Siemens and others. In 2018, the sedan LUX SA2.0 and SUV LUX A2.0 were officially launched, which are the first batch of self-owned brand cars in Vietnam, designed by Pininfarina (which was designed for Ferrari and Lamborghini sports cars).
Nowadays, new energy vehicles are the trend of the times. VinFast plans to stop production of gasoline vehicles this year and transform into a pure electric vehicle professional. At present, five pure electric SUVs have been disclosed, of which the large SUV "VF8" and "VF9" have begun to obtain orders in Vietnam, Europe and the United States, and are expected to sell 40,000-50,000 units throughout the year. They sell the same class of products at about half the price of Tesla by offering high-priced batteries on a rental basis. The company also plans to list in the United States, and success will determine the development of its pure electric vehicle business.