“During economic crisis, we always see opportunities, manage to seize them and have successfully overcome the two latest crises in a spectacular way” said Ms Nguyen Thi Thu Huong, Deputy Standing General Director of Kinh Bac City Development Share Holding Corporation (KBC) in an interview with Vietnam Business Forum. Nam Pham reports.
KBC is a leading property developer in Vietnam. Could you briefly introduce KBC?
KBC - an important member of the Saigon Invest Group primarily focuses on developing industrial and urban infrastructure. Sticking to the operating principle “Industrial park is your home,” Saigon Invest Group and KBC have developed more than 20 industrial and urban zones across the country and employed 10,000 staffs. Saigon Invest Group covers a wide spectrum of business from finance, banking and real estate to energy. The group’s investment capital has exceeded US$2 billion.
Que Vo Industrial Park in Bac Ninh province is known as a phenomenon as its name quickly spread worldwide because of its ability to attract large-scaled high-tech projects and rapid full occupancy. At the end of 2010, Que Vo IP housed 65 domestic and foreign investment projects with a total registered capital of nearly US$605 million (FDI capital) and more than VND996 billion (US$50 million), and created good jobs for more than 20,000 workers.
KBC always breaks new ground in developing industrial - service - urban complexes and expanding support services for industrial parks. KBC judiciously studies foreign experience and creatively opens inland clearance depot (ICD) in industrial parks.
In 2009, the KBC was entrusted by the Vietnamese and Japanese Governments to develop Japan Supporting Industry Zone Chain in Vietnam. This project is followed by the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade and Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. In 2010, the corporation completed 12 industrial workshops for Japanese investors.
KBC successfully passed through the tough time of economic crisis and made impressive success. Would you be kind enough to tell some notable achievements?
We always try our best to please customers and partners and share with them in the hard time. All our products and services are always distinctive, more competitive than our competitors because we at all times strive to apply value chain and value-added model to every product and service.
We have boldly applied different investment attraction forms like offering free services to investors, providing ready-built workshops for investors, applying instalment payments for factory construction credits, etc.
During economic crisis, we always see opportunities and manage to seize them and have successfully overcome the two latest crises in a spectacular way. The first crisis we encountered was the Asian financial crisis in 1999 when most investors in the world stopped investing in Vietnam. At that time, Ho Chi Minh City started offering two-year credit interest support to factory investors and construction costs were reduced by half from actual value. We did not miss this opportunity. We borrowed additional US$20 million to build workshops to sell to investors when the crisis was over. One year later, when the crisis eased, we managed to sell our assets for US$40 million and we used this margin for reinvestment.
KBC gives priority to investment promotion activities in Vietnam and in the world, targeting at hi-tech projects.
In the latest global economic crisis, we managed to get through it and continued with big investments. In late 2009, KBC marked a milestone when it defeated many other bright candidates to win the bid to build Hoa Sen Hanoi Hotel which is close to the National Convention Centre. The 4.3-ha US$500 million hotel project offers 550 luxurious rooms. Previously, the Hanoi People's Committee assigned this project to Riviera Group of Japan. KBC worked hard to sign a hotel design contract with Foster and Partners.
In 2010, KBC acquired a Swiss watch manufacturer at low price. The greatest value the corporation has attained is to hold precision engineering technology which will power up high-tech devices like computers, printers, mobile phones, etc.
KBC takes much care of corporate social responsibility. Could you tell more about this?
Together with promoting business development, KBC always upholds corporate social responsibility and sustainable development. We build houses for our employees, clinics in industrial and urban zones. KBC always protects the environment in industrial and urban zones. Remarkably, KBC annually donates billions of Vietnamese dong to sponsor and support the poor, the elderly and children.
Would you mind telling your corporation’s major development objectives and orientations for the upcoming period?
In addition to real estate investment and development, KBC will continue cooperating with partners to step into new areas like finance, banking, mining, energy, and telecommunications. Particularly, KBC will promote international cooperation in human resource training to supply Saigon Invest Group and the society. The corporation is now investing in Hung Vuong University in Ho Chi Minh City.
KBC continues to expand potential markets like Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and others. The Corporation has been entrusted by the Government to build the Japan Economic Zone in Hai Phong City. This 1,000-ha project is a township and industrial park. This project will use Japanese-funded ODA capital. After the Hai Phong City-based project, the corporation will carry out the new one in Vung Tau City where the costs are estimated to be lower than the first one.
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