On July 08, 2017, at the head office of Viet Han Engineering Co., Ltd (VHE) in Dinh Vu industrial zone, General Director Dao Dang Kien had a talk with reporters of Vietnam Business Forum – The magazine of the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI). Mr. Dao Dang Kien has shared about the history and the development of VHE, future orientation, and he expressed his wishes, opinion on improving the business environment in Hai Phong City 2017 – Increasing quality, promote effective.

The conversation was successful, Reporters had the necessary information about the company and wrote in the article “ Viet Han Engineering Co., Ltd – Success from Professionalism”. This is the honor and pride of all employees of VHE when customers, partners have trust and confidence for long-term cooperation with VHE as well as show the determination and commitment of the company to customers and partners, VHE gradually expanded its operation fields and affirmed its position in design, fabrication, and construction of mechanical products and equipment in heavy industries for domestic and export.

Viet Han Engineering Co., Ltd (VHE) was established in 2008 with about 10 engineers. The biggest asset of VHE at the time was the 22-year working experience and in-depth professional knowledge of President and General Director Dao Dang Kien. With his considerate care and dedication to customers through each and every product and work plus its professional management and operation, VHE has built up and affirmed its prestige to domestic and foreign partners. As a result, VHE gradually expanded its operation fields and affirmed its position in the mechanical engineering industry, which serves heavy industries.

Maturity from every project and product
After quitting a good job in a joint venture company to start his own business, Mr. Dao Dang Kien clearly understood that he would confront a lot of hardships in the way ahead. But, he still believed that he could do something different. At first, he focused on design, a small step in product/service supply chains in the mechanical engineering industry, but this was the right direction for VHE because its potential (finance and personnel) at that time was not strong enough.

He noted that “Competition in this field is intense. In order to obtain the satisfaction and cooperation agreement from foreign partners and customers from Japan and South Korea among others, VHE not only meets design requirements and ensures the execution progress but also shows its professionalism, honesty, and responsibility in dealing with arising situations (if any). Sometimes, VHE had to meet foreign customers 2-3 times at the company to gain absolute trust in the company’s competence to fulfill their requirements. At first, our contracts did not have big values but we always captured every opportunity to stay alive. More importantly, through each project and contract implemented, we enhanced our management capacity and expertise.”

When VHE gained customer trust, the door of cooperation was opened wide for VHE. Customers started to order VHE to carry out more design stages. In the beginning, it was just technical supervision. Then, the company had to invest more to meet higher requirements such as manufacturing, construction, installation, operation, maintenance of equipment and systems. With that confidence, VHE invested in expanding its production facilities and equipment, recruited more employees, and applied an advanced quality management system, ISO 9001: 2015.

2016 marked an important development milestone for the company when it commenced construction on a mechanical equipment factory in Dinh Vu Industrial Park, Hai Phong City. This was seen as an important step to confirm its capacity for production, construction, project management. Advantageously situated on a 68-meter wide trunk road heading to Dinh Vu Port, about 1 km away, the mechanical equipment production factory can manufacture oversized, overweighed equipment and structures for the domestic market and for export.

After 9 years of construction and development, VHE is confident that it is going on the right track. VHE has close customers from the early days of establishment. The firm has increased in both scale and performance. Starting from small contracts worth a few thousand US dollars, VHE has now undertaken design, fabrication, and installation orders worth US$1.5 – 5.5 million. Many technically sophisticated projects are carried out by VHE like a project to supply spherical pressure tanks for the Nghi Son oil refinery project, an overall design project (3D model) for the Thai Binh 1 thermoelectric plant. Not only supplying mechanical equipment (pressure tank, steel structure, pressure system, and exhaust system) for domestic and foreign factories, VHE receives fabrication orders from foreign customers.

Cooperation for mutual development
From the very beginning, he was determined to build VHE with its own cultural identity and style. VHE attaches great importance to personal development. An employee, regardless of how good he or she is, must stay connected and cooperative with others and respect common goals. To form a united entity, VHE applies a coherent, transparent, and democratic governance principle.

Managing people is always a tough job. Operating in mechanical manufacturing but not performing mass production like VHE requires the creativity of engineers in every product and the ability to flexibly handle hard situations in each project. Therefore, VHE is very flexible in assessing and arranging people, all based on their performance and attitude. To meet working requirements, VHE chooses and trains employees according to their expertise and the corporate culture.

Not only is excellent at internal relations, but VHE is also always honest and clear about its competency to gain the trust and cooperation of customers. When projects require sophisticated technologies, partners are ready to send their experts to transfer technologies to VHE engineers. VHE does not use prices as a competitive weapon. VHE pursues a policy of providing good products and services, minimizing defects (if any), and having ultimate responsibility for products and services (including after delivery and payment). The company eyes long-term cooperation and sustainable development with customers and partners.

On its development way, VHE always fulfills its obligations and responsibilities to the State, takes care of laborers (mandatory requirements of Japanese and South Korean partners). VHE products have been used in many national key projects. General Director Kien said, “In the context of integration, foreign businesses are competing on our domestic market, both in jobs and workers. In order to stand firm in this context, in addition to our own endeavors, we need more theme-based dialogue programs to address specific difficulties faced by businesses of different sectors. For the mechanical engineering industry, as many types of products (steel products) cannot be produced in the country, I hope that Hai Phong City and tax and customs authorities will be more flexible in import tax management, price appraisal, and commodity inspection to reduce customs clearance time while still ensuring that trade frauds are curbed.”