 On a visit to a local company
During these years, Vietnam has been called China-plus-one or Vista and has drawn much attention from the rest of the world. There are still many things about foreign including Japanese manufacturing industry in Vietnam that we may need to take into consideration. All of industrial parks in Vietnam are filled with corporations, factories etc that are currently in fully productive operation.
If we only look at this, we will immediately suppose Vietnam is an industrial country but the truth is that the number of Vietnamese people leading their lives by farming which still has been the country's first industry are still high. So this time, I am going to visit a pesticide company in the South of Vietnam (H.A.I Pesticide Company).
Located in the center of Ho chi Minh City, H.A.I is comparatively near from my office, which takes only around 10 minutes to move by a taxi. The company's office stays in a 5 storey building where many government's agricultural business establishments are also located.
When I arrived at the company, there was already a woman (Head of General Affairs) waiting for me at the reception table and right away she led me to the meeting room nearby. A few moments later, the general director of H.A.I in casual wears arrived. My first impression was that he was a very shy man. We exchanged our business cards then I started my questions.
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Would you please tell me about your company's main products ?
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90% of our sales are imported from overseas companies, only around 10% of them are produced by our company. It's because in current economic situation, it's more economical if we just import and resell the items. We consider to import raw materials also and do both in the future.
Our main Japanese clients include Itoh & Co., Ltd. / Sumitomo Corporation / Mitsui & Co., Ltd. / Sumitomo chemical Ishihara Sangyo / Nippon Sodatsu Co.etc.
We have been co-operated for a long time. |
Could you tell me about your business deals with foreign countries (e.g Japan)?
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For the time being, we produce 3500 tons of sugar on our production site of 22 hecta. Parallel to the current site, we are building another one that is 38 hecta large. We are going to finish the construction on the 3rd quarter of this year. After the new site is built, sugar produced will likely increase drastically to 6000 tons. Also, we are not going to stop at works of sugar refinement, as we are cultivating a farm of 1000 hecta area in TayNinh province, to seedling and growing sugar canes.
The future vision of our company's activities, which is to run our businesses from the upper stream to the down stream, is not only about sugar cane cultivation, but also about sugar production, refinement as well as sugar related products. |
Please tell me about human resource management ?
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In my company, the ratio of job quitters is almost zero. I think it might be related to the fact that there is just a small number of them, only 1 or 2 in a year.
I don't have anything to worry about my company's human resource management. Additionally, work in our office is very smooth because 7 co-workers do their jobs very well. The number of employees 3 years ago was less than 90 which is half the number of today's employees. We think our staff members will increase up to 300 because the number of branches will be expanded from 7 to 20 throughout the country in 2010. In our company, we consider to offer branch managers many advantages. That is also a characteristic of our company, isn't it ?
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How about your company's new projects
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Actually, we increased our capital last August via SSI securities. But we have not made any press release of the figure yet. Shareholders include also government, so we don't offer reward or punishment on capital increase.
Moreover, the area where Binh Tan and 6 other districts join can be saved for an underground station but there is also a plan to build a 15 storey commercial building on it. After the land acquisition, it is intended to be built in 2008. We are considering to move our main office into it right then. Additionally, a research on a new spray typed manure to spray onto the leaves of the plants is being carried out in our company. Imported products are good but we think their prices are too high in Vietnamese market. It will be a great impact on the market if our own company can produce a lower cost one.
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Could you tell me about your company's business industry ?
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At present, the growth rate of Vietnam agriculture is around 15% per year. I think it will change smoothly within the next 10 years. From a viewpoint over the agriculture as a whole, I think Vietnam will work it out in the same way in the future as did Japan. At present, although there are still so many farmhands with low wages, along with the higher development of society, these might tend to choose working places and urban areas of higher paid jobs. It is then time for the Vietnam agriculture to move to a new stage. However, it is still all right for a while now. |
Could you tell me about your company target of the sales/ordinary profit this year ?
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We aim to acquire a sale income of 480,000,000,000 dong per an ordinary profit of 50,000,000,000 dong this year. We think we can mostly achieve it. All of us as a whole will do our best to achieve this which is 20% higher than that of last year. |
And about the sale report of April-June, 2007 ?
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 The total sales decrease a little compared to those of the previous quarter. Weather condition can account for this. As you might know, the rain season starts from April till September in Vietnam. Particularly during this wet season, the water level of Mekong river rises higher and that our main consumption market is located in Mekong Delta Region has caused us to suffer. That is why during the periods of April-to-June and July-to-September, the sales decrease a little. Yet, this is a normal annual happening that brings about no actual problems at all. |
Is it true that only 2% of foreign investors are shareholders?
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There are around 25% of floating stocks in the market. Foreign investors hold 10% of them, so saying 2% of them is not quite correct, right ? In our company, government and managers keep most of the stocks. |
Changing into Ho Chi Minh market from Ha Noi market, when will your company be listed on the Stock Exchange ?
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Well, this is the hardest question. It is unfortunately a secret. Even so, perhaps someone might have already known about this, and this person spread the information to public on the first days of March. It was the shareholders of our company that released the news but it was then distorted with rumors from somewhere to make it completely different. Right after that, we were thus complained by Securities Supervisor Offices and suffered from unreasonable troubles. While the truth was... |
An advice for Japanese investors
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Our company has a historical record of nearly 22 years doing businesses in the country since the establishment. We have been long in a business relationship with several Japanese major companies. It is likely that because our scope of activities is not so popular, not many Japanese investors know about our company. However, I am proud to say that Vietnam is still an agricultural country, and our existence is thus of necessity in the market. As a saying in Japanese, is it that we have our strength but are not properly used ?
As long as there is still farming in Vietnam, we understand how significant our existence is. I am sorry that there is not so much information about our company, but please support us by all means |
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Company name
President
Address
Officers
Worker number
Capital
Branch number
Factory number
Transition
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: HAI Pesticide Joint-Stock Co. Ltd
: Dang Thanh Cuong
: 28 Mac Dinh Chi st, District 1, HCMCity
: 7
: 180
: 114,000,000,000 dong
: 7
: 1
: Since Feb,2005 changed from Agricultural Equipment Company into Pesticide Joint-Stock Company |
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H.A.I Pesticide Co. Ltd
HAI General director(right)
Date:July 20,2007 (Fri)
Location:HoChiMinh City
Interview: Mr Sakogawa
Representative Mr Sakogawa (left)
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