Arriving in Vietnam in 1995, YEV specialises in manufacturing electrical wire harness for automobiles. Initially, the company has 11 workers who worked in a 30,000 square metre workshop but now the number of workers is raised to nearly 7,000 people and the workshop area is expanded to over 110,000 square metres installed with 45 production lines. The current annual export revenues surpassed US$115 million. YEV is rated one of the most stably developing companies in Binh Duong Province. The Vietnam Business Forum Magazine had an interview with Mr. YOSHIO SUGIMOTO, president of YEV.
Could you introduce the most notable achievements of your company after more than 10 years operating in Vietnam?
All our output is for export to Japan and our main customer is Toyota. At present, the output of Toyota is increasing sharply and will increase further in the future. This is a favourable for us to expand production as 90 per cent of our products are supplied to Toyota. Notably, most of our nearly 7,000 workers are local people. Therefore, the development of the company has great contributions of the local residents and local workers.
We are very grateful to the local government and people who have supported us for more than 10 years. In return, the company takes part in numerous social activities such as book presentation to local libraries, charity houses for the poor and gift presentation to wartime sufferers. These deeds reflect the company’s policy of developing together with the locality.
Recently, frequent strikes in foreign-invested companies have made investors feel insecure in employing local workers. How do you think about this?
The labour cost in Vietnam is now very competitive compared with that in regional countries. Most recent strikes are resulted from unsatisfactory salary changes or unsatisfactory pays for overtime works. The company understands the contributions, rights and interests of our workers; hence, we always consider the salary rates in local companies. We will have suitable changes in salary to protect rights and interest of our workers and make them devote to the development of the company. Possibly, YEV is a stably growing company in Binh Duong. We always listen attentively to proper requests of our employees.
However, recent strikes were spontaneous, or in other words, they were not led by trade unions. Therefore, the government should have clear policies against illegal strikes to make investors feel secure.
In your opinion, which fields should the Vietnamese Government develop and open to attract more foreign investors?
In my opinion, you should pay attention to investment for education and career training. At present, Vietnam lacks well-trained workers, especially engineers and managerial staff. Before any investment, the investor always considers human resource matter first.
The second matter is the poor infrastructure and weak IT system in Vietnam. The road and port system is almost is overloaded and outdated. The application of information and communication technology still fails to keep pace with the economic development.
It is also very important to change policies to facilitate the investment environment. When a new law comes into effect, Vietnam should send information and instructions to every company. An investor will feel at ease when he is observing a common and clear law.
Create an Image of High Quality for Vietnamese Produce
With a population of over 80 million people in which agriculture accounts for a majority of the population (75 per cent), the economy in Vietnam is essential agrarian.
Rice, rubber, textiles and garments, food processing are major exporting products. Vietnam is also the world’s largest producer of Robusta coffee and pepper and the second largest producer of cashew.
However, according to Mr. Kaushal Khanna, GM of Olam Vietnam, there is a practical need for investments in the agriculture sector to upgrade the quality of Vietnam produce.
Olam Vietnam was established in 2000 in Vietnam and in the last 6 years has taken a significant market share in Robusta coffee and has become a leading exporter of cashew nuts and robusta coffee from Vietnam.
Olam Vietnam targets a export of 70.000 tonnes of coffee in 2006 compared with 49.000 in 2005 a growth of 42 per cent. It also recorded a growth of 20 per cent in pepper exports also. Since 2000, Olam VietNam has expanded its activities to DakNong, Lam Dong, Daklak,, Dong Nai, Gia Lai, etc.
The biggest success of Olam vietnam has been to promote and market vietnamese agricultural produce in the world markets and also enhance the image of the products exported. The overall expansion of the olams operations in Vietnam has created lot of jobs in the provinces both direct and indirect and also improved the economy of the areas that it operates in.
‘’Quality is a very important factor in a competitive market condition and good quality fetches a good price and this becomes more important in the year when Vietnam is supposed to Join WTO’. Low quality of the produce is a big problem and needs to be addressed in priority if Vietnam is so enhance its image in the global market place. Olam Vietnam in its role is continuously trying to improve the quality of the produce by improved manufacturing practices and transfer of knowledge to the farmers and other intermediaries.
Vietnamese
