In the following Thanh Nien interview, Vu, who is also general director of the real estate developer Phuquocland, discusses how his event could help reveal the opportunities of Vietnam to foreign investors.
What gave you the idea for the Vietnam Tourism Property Opportunities Conference and Exhibition (VnTPO)?
Than Thanh Vu: Foreign investors have told me that Vietnam has the potential to develop a great tourism industry.
The country has over 3,000 kilometers of coastline with hundreds of islands.
Kien Giang Province, where Phuquocland is based, has 150.
Foreigners say Vietnam is beautiful, and we also see the beauty of our country.
So why not focus on tourism when we’ve been given the natural resources that enable us to compete with other countries?
When I ask foreign investors why they’re particularly interested in Vietnam, they ask me to show them any other country in the region that rivals our own in terms of opportunities to invest in tourism and tourism property.
They say the Taiwanese real estate market has been stagnating for the past eight years, Hong Kong and Singapore are too small, and Thailand is politically unstable.
Potential investors have gotten good feedback from others who are already investing here and high GDP growth also interests people.
Another major appeal is the burgeoning demand for, or shortage of, tourism property.
We are in dire shortage of luxury hotels.
I myself had few choices when choosing a 500-seat conference room for the exhibition.
What else does Ho Chi Minh City have to offer me in this aspect besides New World and Sheraton?
So I thought this would be a good time to organize an event and reveal what we call the “hidden charm” of our country.
How will the event be different from others?
Individual provinces often spend VND2 billion to VND4 billion organizing their own conferences to call for foreign investment without really knowing who to invite.
But VnTPO, which costs roughly the same amount, has consulted with real estate and tourism consultants such as CB Richard Ellis, Grant Thornton and Horwath HTL as well as with foreign chambers of commerce in Vietnam to decide who to invite.
This event will also be narrower in scope – that is, to call specifically for investment in tourism property – which may be more effective in matching up partners.
And instead of giving rather tiresome PowerPoint presentations, provincial officials will be seated in separate rooms to talk directly with whoever is interested in investing in their provinces.
The best approach for new investors here is to talk to old investors who have experiences to share and provincial governments who have opportunities to offer.
What opportunities do our provinces have to offer?
It’s curious that authorities in Phan Thiet tell me they do not have much to offer as they have no idle land left to lease to investors.
If a poor country with annual income per capita yet to reach US$1,000 couldn’t call for investment, which country ever could?
There are still many things left undone in developed economies like the US or South Korea.
Land is not the only matter of interest here.
Phan Thiet Town in Binh Thuan Province has no land left but it also doesn’t have any five star hotels.
So why doesn’t it call for investment to upgrade its hotels?
Other province officials say they do not need more investors as they have too many already.
But the more investors there are, the greater competition will be and the harder investors will work to improve their projects.
And as long as investors know the current state of things, they may come up with ideas that provinces themselves have never thought of.
Representatives from some areas like Quang Nam, Thua Thien-Hue and HCMC will come to the event knowing exactly what they have to offer.
But others like Ninh Thuan are still scratching their heads trying to figuring out a way to convince foreign investors their beaches are different from Vung Tau or Nha Trang.
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