On August 15, VinFast ’s listing in the US became a historic event and attracted a lot of public attention. It can be said that VinFast has done the extremely difficult thing of listing on Nasdaq with a very high stock price and capitalization, despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

This is a particularly important step on the path to conquering the US and global markets of the enterprise, opening up opportunities to raise capital on a large scale. With capital, the company will have money to invest in building factories, purchasing equipment and machinery, researching technology, designing vehicle models, organizing production and organizing battery charging systems, after-sales services, building brands, etc.

That means, VinFast's successful listing in the US is extremely important, a must if it wants to move forward, otherwise VinFast will have no future. Therefore, I congratulate VinFast as well as congratulate businesses in the industrial and technological fields of Vietnam.

Unlike many people who were optimistic about VinFast's stock price and capitalization on the first day of listing on Nasdaq, I calmly watched and waited for trading developments in the following days. I not only read the news on Forbes, but also watched the Bloomberg billionaire rankings and Yahoo Finance to see different perspectives of the US financial community on VFS stocks and capitalization.

VinFast niêm yết ở Mỹ, ngẫm về biển lớn của doanh nghiệp Việt - 1

The moment VinFast's VFS shares were listed on Nasdaq (Source: VF).

For me, VinFast's stock price and capitalization in the early days are not really meaningful, because currently only a very small amount of 0.19% of VinFast shares are allowed to be traded. Only when VinFast shares held by Vingroup are allowed to be traded will the stock price and capitalization of this smart electric car company really be meaningful; especially when VinFast raises capital from investors, that is the real goal to aim for.

I know that the road ahead for VinFast is certainly not a journey full of roses, there will be many difficulties and challenges that VinFast people will have to persevere and strive to overcome. VinFast's competitors are famous names such as Tesla, Chevrolet, Ford, Hyundai, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Kia, Audi, Nissan, Volvo... don't look down on VinFast's capitalization at a higher point in time. They not only have a brand, financial potential, experience in the automobile industry, but also have the number of electric cars sold 10, 20, 50, 100 times more than VinFast.

VinFast must do something to make Americans and Europeans trust, love and decide to buy VinFast cars, and must buy cars in large quantities, up to hundreds of thousands of cars per year, not just stopping at a few thousand, a few tens of thousands of cars.

There are also some concerns about the benefits that businesses bring when they list abroad, establish a legal entity abroad and pay taxes abroad. VinFast's listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange with the legal entity VinFast Singapore, I think this is the company's choice, although it is not a mandatory path for other Vietnamese businesses to follow when they want to list in foreign markets.

Regarding taxes, VinFast still has a factory in Hai Phong, still produces cars for export, still sells cars domestically, meaning VinFast still produces and does business in Vietnam, so they still pay import tax, VAT, corporate income tax and other taxes in Vietnam. Of course, when VinFast produces cars in the US, sells cars in the US, it will obviously have to pay taxes for the production and business in the US, that is natural, it cannot be otherwise!

Not only VinFast, there have been and are many Vietnamese entrepreneurs with great aspirations. In parallel with developing their own powerful businesses, they are always aware of building internal strength, mastering technology, mastering the domestic market, creating world-class products and services, reaching out to conquer foreign markets, and enhancing Vietnam's position in the international arena.

Pioneering enterprises in the field of going abroad include Viettel in telecommunications, FPT and hundreds of other Vietnamese software enterprises present in Japan, the US, Canada, Singapore. We have Thaco in exporting cars, Vinamilk in exporting milk, we can also mention Dai Dung company in steel frames for football fields, Van Vina in industrial copper valves and now Vinfast with electric cars...

However, I think that is still too little, we need more businesses to go abroad and each business must also succeed on a larger scale.

Apart from the software sector, which has reached a scale where exported software is larger than domestic software in terms of both sales and human resources, other sectors and industries, the domestic market still accounts for a much larger proportion than the international market. This proves that the desire to go abroad of Vietnamese entrepreneurs is not big enough.

Apart from Mr. Truong Gia Binh FPT and Mr. Pham Nhat Vuong Vingroup who talk a lot about exporting software and electric cars, I rarely see senior leaders of other large enterprises talk about their enterprises' aspirations and strategies to expand abroad.

When it comes to FPT’s difficulties when going abroad, they are huge, numerous, and they are encountered at all times, in every country. FPTers must put all their efforts into focusing on the best and most quintessential resources for globalization, and must make great efforts, every day, every hour, anytime, anywhere, to untie every single knot.

I still remember in 2003, after 4 years of going abroad, FPT had spent almost all its budget on globalization but still could not find a way out…. If we talk about the difficulties we faced when going abroad, we probably could not finish talking all day. Talking about the advantages would be more fun.

The first advantage is the determination of FPT's leaders. The leadership and management team at all levels also share the aspiration and determination to go abroad, "bringing Vietnamese intelligence to conquer the world".

The second advantage is that Vietnamese people have the strength to learn new technology very quickly. In traditional technology, Vietnam is far behind advanced countries, but with new technology, when everyone starts, the gap has narrowed. Thanks to that, when focusing on new technology, FPT can easily get contracts.

The biggest advantage is that when going abroad, FPT has access to a large, unlimited market. If the domestic economy of Vietnam is only 400 billion USD, the global economy is up to 100,000 billion USD, 250 times larger.

Because of having an unlimited market, in 29 countries on 4 continents, FPT is not dependent on any market, when an economic market is in recession, FPT has many other markets. Therefore, in 2 years of the Covid-19 pandemic, while the whole world grew negatively, Vietnam's economy only grew by 2.7% - 2.9%, FPT still grew by 13% and 21%. In 2023, when the economy is difficult, many businesses are struggling, FPT still maintains a growth rate of 18-20%.

As for difficulties, we see that the most significant and obvious obstacle is administrative procedures. How to reduce sub-licenses, reduce unnecessary controls (such as new cars still need to be inspected, iPhones must comply with regulations when imported, for example), how to make all public agencies consider businesses as service objects, how to make it easier to go on business trips abroad (visa exemption to more countries, business cards issued more and faster)...

Only then will businesses be truly supported, empowered to develop and be able to compete with foreign rivals, bring benefits to the community, and make the country famous!

Author: Mr. Do Cao Bao has a BA in Control Mathematics, Military Technical Academy; worked at the Department of Operations, General Staff and Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology. Mr. Bao is one of the founding members of FPT Corporation, currently a member of the Board of Directors of FPT Corporation.

(According to Do Cao Bao/ Dan Tri Newspaper)

Vietnamnet.vn