Joseph Araneta Gamboa l October 2, 2024 l Business Mirror
HANOI, Vietnam–This metropolis of almost 20 million people is the political and cultural capital of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Created by law in 2008, the Hanoi Metropolitan Area consists of nine provinces that surround the capital city of Hanoi in the northern Vietnamese region. The core city itself is bordered by the Red River and the Black River, from which Hanoi derives its name that literally means “inside the river.”
Emperor Ly Thai To established Hanoi as the capital of the imperial Vietnamese nation known as Dai Viet in the year 1010 AD. During my first visit here in 2010, the city was observing its 1,000th foundation year with the inauguration of major commemorative projects as part of its millennial anniversary celebration.
From 1902 to 1945, Hanoi was the capital of French Indochina encompassing France’s colonies in Southeast Asia such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and the Chinese city of Zhanjiang in present-day Guangdong province. Vestiges of its French colonial past can still be seen in Hanoi’s Old Quarter, the historical urban core bordering Hoan Kiem Lake that serves as the city’s central business district (CBD).
The West of Hanoi is the city’s new CBD that is home to the Vietnam National Convention Center, Museum of Ethnology, Keangnam Landmark Tower, Indochina Plaza, Lotte Center, Takashimaya’s The Loop shopping mall, and numerous technology firms. It also houses the current terminus of Vietnam Railways’ Hanoi Metro train line that started operations last month.
Since 2020, Vietnam has overtaken the Philippines in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. The total Vietnamese population of 100.9 million is lower than the 119.1 million Filipinos as of mid-2024; but its real GDP has already surpassed ours starting 2022.
Despite a series of political resignations over the past three years that involved several Vietnamese presidents and prime ministers, the country’s economy has remained stable. Its two securities trading centers in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City recently merged into the Vietnam Stock Exchange.
Vietnam’s economic boom is exemplified by the rapid growth of the Vingroup Joint Stock Co., a private conglomerate headquartered in Hanoi. Founded as a food company in 1993 by Vietnamese entrepreneur Pham Nhat Vuong (now Vietnam’s richest man), Vingroup has expanded into the property development and retail industries as well as in the health care and education sectors. Its latest foray is in automobile manufacturing through subsidiary VinFast Auto Ltd. based in Haiphong City, which introduced the first Vietnamese car brand in 2017. It is now churning out sedans and SUVs designed by Pininfarina of Italy. With its recent expansion into electric vehicles, VinFast has been named by the Time magazine among the world’s 100 most influential companies in 2024.
Another Vingroup subsidiary, Vinhomes, is considered the biggest commercial real estate developer in Vietnam. It was spun off in 2018 and had an initial public offering shortly after, becoming Vietnam’s second-largest publicly-traded company next only to its parent firm Vingroup.
Vinhomes has property developments in 40 cities across Vietnam and owns 16,000 hectares of land nationwide. Two of its minority shareholders are the Government of Singapore Private Ltd. and the KKR Viking Asia Holdings Fund. On a family trip last week to Halong Bay northeast of Hanoi, we passed by the luxurious Vinhomes Ocean Park township that looks like a massive version of Rockwell Center in Makati combined with Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.
Compared to the phenomenal growth of Vietnam in less than 50 years after the Fall of Saigon in 1975, the Philippines has fallen far behind. And to think that the Vietnamese people had to undergo two decades of civil war vis-à-vis our 13 years of martial law.
Yet they were able to bounce back while we have not fully recovered. We will have to play catch-up in the next decades–otherwise the likes of Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia would also overtake us if we don’t shape up soon.
*** Joseph Gamboa is the vice-chairman of the Ethics Committee of the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (Finex) and director of Noble Asia Industrial Corp. The views he expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Finex and the BusinessMirror. #FinexPhils www.finex.org.ph. Photo from Pinterest.