VietNamNet Bridge - They first came to Vietnam as foreign ambassadors or heads of states, and have now returned to Vietnam as businesspeople.

Ha Chan Ho, the advisor to Samsung Group of Korea in Vietnam

 

Ha Chan Ho, the advisor to Samsung Group of Korea in Vietnam, has a wide circle of acquaintances in Vietnam.

“I am 80 percent Vietnamese,” he said at an informal meeting with Vietnamese journalists in late 2014, “not 50 percent.”

He had a long chat with the participants and spoke in standard Vietnamese at times.

“I would like to have a private conversation with you. I am sure you have something to ask about Samsung,” he said to a VietNamNet reporter.

The businessman, who is also an experienced politician, may have suspected the reporter’s reservations about Samsung.

The open countenance of the advisor to Samsung proves to be quite different from the images commonly shown by many politicians and foreign investors in Vietnam, who tend to be skeptical when communicating with the local press.

“Many Vietnamese think Samsung does not want to cooperate with Vietnamese businesses,” he said, referring to the articles about Samsung and the development of support industries in Vietnam.

“In fact, it would be really much better for Samsung to have Vietnamese component suppliers,” he said. “However, developing support industries is not as easy as we think.”

He suggested that Vietnamese businesses still cannot meet the requirements to become direct suppliers to Samsung. However, they can start with becoming secondary suppliers.

Samsung has shown its goodwill towards Vietnamese businesses by inviting 24 Vietnamese component suppliers to visit factories. The meeting is believed to be the initial step for long-term cooperation between Samsung and Vietnamese businesses in the future.

Norio Hattori, when leaving Vietnam after the office term as Japanese ambassador in 2007, promised that he would come back to Vietnam in three years. And he fulfilled his promise.

He returned to Vietnam to fulfill his different roles many times. In 2011, he became the advisor to Hai Phong City authorities in attracting Japanese investment capital to the city.

In June 2014, he was also an advisor to Hattori & Associates, which had received an investment certificate for an eye hospital project in Vietnam.

Hattori said he hopes to bring high-end services in accordance with Japanese standards to Vietnam.

After five years of living in Vietnam, he said the country has become his second homeland. He has a comfortable life in Vietnam and believes that many Japanese would like Vietnam as well.

Pham Huyen