Die Vietnam Economic Times interviewte zum Jahresanfang Manager unterschiedlicher Unternehmen und vietnamesischer Bildungseinrichtungen. Für alle ist die Qualifikation des Personals der Schlüssel zum Erfolg.
- A year of continued growth
05/02/2010
Customers and staff are the key to AIA Vietnam’s continued success, says General Director Mr Jamie Rains.
What are your thoughts on Vietnam’s business environment in 2009 in general and the insurance industry in particular?
With the global financial crisis, Vietnam, like many other countries, has experienced some slowdown and most industries, including life insurance, face challenges in growing their markets. However, with a large population, increasing household incomes, and life insurance being a new industry, Vietnam continues to attract more foreign-owned companies seeking opportunities in this young and emerging market. With only 5 per cent of the Vietnamese population owning life insurance, Vietnam offers huge potential for insurance companies to explore.
Looking back on 2009, how would you describe the company’s achievements?
Established in 2000, AIA Vietnam is a member of the AIA Group, the leading pan-Asian life insurance organisation that traces its roots in the Asia Pacific region back more than 90 years. AIA Group provides consumers and businesses with products and services for life insurance, retirement planning, accident and health insurance as well as wealth management solutions through an extensive network of 250,000 agents and 20,000 employees across 15 geographical markets, serving over 20 million customers in the region.
Over the last ten years AIA Vietnam has achieved steady growth and continued to expand our business and distribution network throughout the country. Interestingly, despite the current economic slowdown, 2009 was a record-breaking year for AIA Vietnam with significant growth while managing our business in a profitable and compliant manner.
Also in 2009, we began a program to renovate our customer service centres to be more professional, friendly and responsive to customer and agent needs. This is only part of our customer service commitment as we strive to be a company that provides not only great products but also great services. In December 2009 the AIA Group launched “The Power of We” all across Asia Pacific, highlighting our 90-year heritage in the region and underscoring our absolute customer focus and the critical importance of our AIA team. To promote “The Power of We” spirit, AIA has partnered with UNICEF to raise funds to support vaccinations for poor children in many countries in Asia, including Vietnam.
We are proud of this meaningful program, which helps save the children’ lives. We are very proud of our achievements over recent years and this is a result of the dedication of our staff and agents and also the support of our valued customers and partners.
What are your expectations in 2010?
Our ultimate goal is to be the market leader in the life insurance industry. As part of our business expansion strategy, in 2010 we will continue to open more offices in other cities and provinces and expand our distribution network. We will also continue our program of renovating and upgrading our customer service centres in order to better serve our customers and agents. Building and developing a professional agent network is also important for us, in order to grow our business sustainably. We will also focus on innovating our products and tailoring them to meet customers’ various needs.
As we strive to provide great products and services to our customers, it is necessary to train and develop our human resources, to attract and retain a team of talented and passionate local workforce so that it can support our increasing business demands in the long-term.
There are numerous insurance companies and therefore competition is fierce. Do you have any strategies to attract more customers in such a competitive environment?
While life insurance has been present in other parts of the world for more than a century, it is still a young industry in Vietnam. More and more foreign-owned insurance companies are entering the country, making competition fiercer. But competition is always healthy since it helps offer more choices for customers to satisfy their increasing needs.
As part of a leading life insurer in Asia, AIA Vietnam’s success is built on local and international experience and through our commitment to putting our customers first. We understand that each individual has different life insurance needs based on their own situation and stage in life. With this in mind, our product range is designed to be flexible so that it can be tailored to suit the ever changing needs of Vietnamese people. Our leadership in the industry, both in terms of customer service and product innovation, has been well recognised over the years. We are also committed to long-term development in Vietnam and always strive to be the number one choice in life insurance for our customers.
What would you recommend to policymakers and the government in supporting the industry in 2010?
Since we started our business in Vietnam ten years ago we have always received great support and guidance from the government, which is very helpful to accelerate the development of the life insurance industry in general and of AIA in particular. This also can benefit and protect the customers. We will continue to cooperate with the Ministry of Finance and other government agencies to promote the sustainable development of the life insurance industry, and especially to educate the public about the importance of life insurance.
- VATC: 10 years of commitment to quality international education
05/02/2010
Educating people so they have a good job for the development of the country is one of the most important tasks of the Vietnamese Government and educational institutions. At this year-end time, Dr Bao Nguyen, President at the Vietnamese American Vocational Training College and Vietnamese American Training Center (VATC), talks about its role in Vietnam’s education sector.
Can you tell us a little bit about VATC and its activities?
Starting in 2000 with only two branches, VATC now has 27 branches throughout Vietnam with nearly 17,000 students. We have English programs for all kinds of students, from kindergarten kids to adult learners, from General English to English for Academic and Special Purposes and English for Overseas Study.
With the motto “Educational Quality is our Number One Priority”, VATC is the first school in Vietnam to use international examinations at each academic level. With the purpose of giving Vietnamese students opportunities to “Study in Vietnam, Receive International Qualifications”, VATC has been cooperating with well-known international institutions to provide international programs at reasonably low cost. Since 2002 VATC has been the official and sole International Associate Partner of the University of Cambridge in the UK. Continuing this success, VATC signed a cooperation agreement with Broward College in Florida, USA, and was approved by its Board of Trustees to become an International Affiliate.
As an International Partner of the University of Cambridge and Broward College, VATC is eligible to use these institutions’ curriculum and students will receive certificates, diplomas or transcripts from Cambridge or Broward after fulfilling all requirements of the institutions. Their programs are always updated to ensure that students are equipped with new, modern knowledge in their field of study in order to join the international workforce market immediately after graduating and also for further and higher studies in future.
Looking back on 2009, how would you describe the school’s performance? What were its significant achievements during the year?
2009 was a very successful year for VATC. Some of the significant achievements include successfully transferring ownership from local to foreign owned, negotiating and completing the fit out of the new VATC headquarters in District 3, concluding a successful college intake, and welcoming over 1,500 new students to both national and international affiliate programs, bringing total enrolments to about 2,700.
We also entered into partnerships with local vocational institutions in hospitality and IT, established articulation agreements with two accredited US universities, Lincoln University and Troy University, allowing graduates of our Broward program to matriculate on to their BA degree in HCMC, expanded vocational offerings to the provinces of Can Tho and Vung Tau, bringing in some 300 students and 50 new students, respectively, entered into a strategic relationship with HUTECH University, providing soft skills training to up to 20,000 students, and expanded our relationship with Australasian Training Academy (ATA) to allow our undergrads to pursue TESOL certification, providing us with a steady stream of English teachers trained right at VATC.
With much effort we achieved the Guinness Vietnam Record for the Largest Greeting Card on Teacher’s Day, broadcast live for one and a half hours on VTV9. We also received a Golden Dragon Award from Vietnam Economic Times in cooperation with the Ministry of Planning and Investment.
There are numerous schools and so competition is quite fierce. Do you have any strategies to attract more students in such a competitive environment?
To make the school become more attractive in the eyes of students, we stick to the motto: “Teaching quality is our number one priority”. This is also the most important foundation of the school. We will also continue to be a pioneer in opening new ways in teaching and training, as we have done over the last ten years, such as being the first school in Vietnam to have the International Non-Distance Education Program, helping Vietnamese students earn international degrees/certifications right here in Vietnam, and being the first school in Vietnam to apply international exams in all English programs, as mentioned above.
What are VATC’s plans for expansion in the time to come?
Firstly, expanding throughout the country and in Ho Chi Minh City, with the motto: “Having one campus in every city and province in the country, opening one campus in every district of Ho Chi Minh City”.
Secondly, establishing more affiliate and accredited programs with international universities and colleges to help Vietnamese students “study in Vietnam, receive international qualifications”.
Thirdly, opening new training fields in vocational training, such as nursing, banking, finance, etc. And, last but not least, focusing on training high quality students for foreign and joint venture enterprises and exporting skilled and professional human resources.
- Seeking skills
03/02/2010
The success of Apollo in Vietnam reflects the placed on education by Vietnamese people regardless of the economic circumstances, writes Ha Anh.
It seems that Vietnam has done well in 2009 compared to many other economies. One significant point, according to Mr Khalid Muhmood, Chairman of Apollo Vietnam, was the crazy price increases, especially in property rentals during 2007 and 2008, which have come down to more realistic levels. “It’s also been more difficult to access foreign currency recently when we have had to make overseas payments, but that now seems to be getting better,” he added.
In terms of education, Apollo Vietnam believes Vietnamese people always place top priority on education whatever the state of the economy so it has not noticed any fall in interest among people to improve their English at Apollo. The only area where it has registered a slowdown is in overseas study services, where parents have delayed decisions to send children overseas to study. And companies have continued to invest in the training of their personnel.
For Apollo, 2009 has been a good year for three main reasons, Mr Muhmood said. Firstly, it updated many of its courses using books and supplementary materials only recently made available. Secondly, it began to work closely with the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) on English language teacher training, which allows Apollo to help improve the quality of language teaching in Vietnam. “As well as training Vietnamese teachers, we also train foreign teachers,” he said. “Not many people know that foreigners from overseas come to our centres in Vietnam to obtain the University of Cambridge Certificate in English Language Teaching.” Thirdly, in 2009 Apollo Vietnam became an IELTS authorised centre, so students can now sit their IELTS exam there. “We have had many other positive developments but the above are the main three,” he added.
Looking to 2010 Mr Muhmood feels “the main challenge is to continue to grow and at the same time always be looking to improve what we do. It is easy to grow fast by sacrificing quality but our goal is to control our growth so that we never lose our focus on quality.” Within the education sector in general the main challenge for any organisation remains negotiating the local and national bureaucracy. Recently there have been articles in the press criticising language centres for employing teachers with no work permits and qualifications.
However, Mr Muhmood said that Apollo has never been mentioned in these articles because it places a strong emphasis on meeting government regulations and recruiting fully-qualified teachers. “The downside of that is that we end up spending a lot of time on submitting and chasing up paperwork,” he said. “I keep reminding my staff and myself that even in the UK people complain about government bureaucracy so we need to keep it all in perspective.”
The opportunities in the education sector in Vietnam are widely recognised. Many funds now have education as a key part of their focus but most, according to Mr Muhmood, underestimate the challenges involved in running an educational organisation.
What would you recommend authorities do to further develop the economy and the education sector?
Our big picture focus is to improve the quality of education available in Vietnam. A consulting firm - McKinsey - recently conducted research around the world focusing on countries like Singapore, the US, the UK, India, Bangladesh etc. to look at what are the key criteria for a successful education system.
Their research delivered a very clear result. The most important factor by far is the quality of the teacher/lecturer/trainer. For Vietnam to develop I feel the main focus needs to be on improving the quality of teachers/lecturers and making a career in teaching an attractive choice. It is not easy to do because Vietnam also needs better buildings, books etc., but with the limited funds available I would focus most resources on people.
- Sharing and learning
03/02/2010
In an interview with VET’s Ha Anh, Mr Gavan Iacono, General Director of Language Link Vietnam said he believes that investing in education during a period of crisis is a smart move.
How do you view the performance of the Vietnamese economy in 2009?
The effect of the global economic crisis impacted on the economies of many Asian countries, including Vietnam. We saw difficult times for Vietnamese businesses. The crisis of confidence among customers in the early months of the year made many businesses fall to the bottom of their business cycle.
We appreciate the reasonable and timely decisions of the Vietnamese Government when faced with crisis. Its demand policy helped to recover confidence among Vietnamese customers. Many Vietnamese businessmen also confidently lead their businesses out of crisis. And, above all, the Vietnamese business community shared and learned from each other. I think that Vietnam’s economy will develop sustainably because we have a sustainable business community.
What were the positive and negative impacts on Language Link’s business performance in the year?
The economic crisis has affected consumption habits at many different levels. Most businesses changed their human resources development strategy, focusing on cutting staff and training costs. Others continued to invest in staff training at every level, especially at the mid and senior management levels. This was a very good decision, as such businesses recorded better results in 2009 and have a long-term development strategy in place.
Parents have kept investing in education for their children. This is an obvious decision because it’s a long-term investment in the future and is seen in most other countries. Of course, the economic crisis makes people think harder when choosing any educational service and quality is generally their first priority. We are pleased that Language Link is always the first choice of companies, parents and students; and we strive to retain people’s faith.
Can you be more specific about Language Link’s performance in 2009?
Customer confidence gave us success in 2009, with growth of 20 per cent. We are proud to train over 30,000 students in Business Management and skills training, General English, Business English, and Academic English for every level, in every age group. We also provided the international-standard English primary program for many primary schools. We now have over 1,000 students studying in the UK, the US, Australia, and elsewhere, with including many excellent students who received scholarships.
In order to meet the increasing demand of society and maintain faith in our teaching quality, we are committed to improving and enhancing our service quality. Our mission is to bring as many opportunities as possible to Vietnamese youth and businesses, to help them with training and to experience an international education environment in Vietnam.
What are the possible challenges and opportunities for the economy and the education sector in 2010?
The biggest advantage for investors is the support of the Vietnamese Government, especially in the international training field. Language Link is a foreign-invested company with 35 years of working globally and 15 years in Vietnam, so we understand the education demands of society. Language Link hopes to contribute to education investment and development.
At this time, Vietnam’s economy is showing positive signs but there are still many challenges in 2010. This makes us concentrate on investment in order to maintain the best service quality and retain customer confidence.