According to many economists, after more than 10 years of studying and development, the domestic construction firms have been able to compete fairly with all foreign contractors, including Korea and Japan. From the subcontractors,the construction firms have successfullybecome the main contractors or profit-sharing partners to own the super-high-rise projects and expand to the countries having the developed construction industry.

For example, two most prominent construction projects in Vietnam in recent years belonged to Vietnamese contractors. Saigon Center Project - The building has 6 basements and 44 floors implemented by Hoa Binh Construction Group (HBC) from construction, management, and supervision. The winning of Cotecconsin The Landmark 81 Project in last year was one of the milestones of Vietnam's construction industry. As the design, The Landmark 81 has the height of 461 m, ranked 8th in the world, invested byVingroup.

According to Mr. Le Viet Hai - Chairman of HBC, the real estate market goes up and down as the Sin chart. It is not easy to have the solution corresponding with them. It is sometimes the contractors are not able to overcome those difficulties, especially when the interest rate of bank loans increases to more than 20%. If this situation keeps longer, the businesses could not stand with it. The strong efforts, cooperation with the investors, the open policies from the Government timely solved the difficulties to help the market topass the crisis.

"According to our assessment and 30-yearexperience,Vietnam construction industry is able to compete well in foreign markets if there is an appropriate strategy. Our significant advantage is the ability to provide the construction services with high quality but low cost, just after India (lower 2-3 times, even 4 times)," Mr. Hai said.

Accordingly, the competitiveness of Vietnamese contractors is not only in the labor force, but also in construction materials as well as the services of design consultancy, construction supervision, project management and other related services. Another important advantage is that the number of engineers and specialists in Vietnam construction industry is three times higher than the average number ofthe world. Vietnam has averagely 9,000 constructionengineers and experts per 1 million people; the rest of the world is 3,000.

According to the sharing of Mr. Hai, this CEO would like to expend the business to the foreign countries at the early periods when the works in the country are still messy and overload, because we will have many international construction experts, the improvement in the company level, more great opportunities in the future.

Previously, Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia were almost the home marketsof the large construction companies in Vietnam due to their close neighbor countries. At the present, thereis the fierce competition when many big enterprises from other countries appear in the construction industry.Therefore, Vinaconex, An Phong, Coteccons, or Hoa Binh are moving to explore new markets such as Malaysia, Myanmar, or even Japan, and the Middle East.

HBC hasrecently signed a contract with United Guft Construction Company (UGCC) - the second largest construction company in Kuwait to do the reinforced concrete package in a part of Al Zour Refinery Project of Kuwait Government with the bidding value of USD20 million (about VND450 billion). This is the largest refinery project in Kuwait with total investment of USD30 billion.

On 21/12/2017, in Kuwait, Hoa Binh Construction Group successfully negotiated with the strategic partner HOT Engineering and Construction for the first package of Criminal Evidence Headquarters Project with the value of USD35 million (about VND800 billion). This is a key project of Kuwait Government with special design. Total investment value of this project is about USD155 million (VND3,500 billion).

With these first projects, Hoa Binh Construction Group has based the foundation at Kuwait market to prepare for the next projects in 2018 and the coming periods in this potential market. This is also the initial success of HBC in exporting the construction capacity in Middle East market.

According to the experts’ appraisals, there are three main reasons that domestic contractors need to expand their businesses to foreign markets. Firstly, the current quantity of labor resource in Vietnam construction industry is very large, about 9,000 engineers and experts per 1 million people, 3 times higher than the number of neighboring countries. In order to reduce the pressure as well as increase the labor productivity, we just can do"exporting the labor to foreign markets".

Secondly, the heating of the construction industry is in parallel with the real estate market, which is a volatile market. During the "leisure time" of the real estate market, participating in theprojects’ bidding in foreign countries is also a way to optimize the business activities of the construction enterprises.

Thirdly, it is very important when participating in theprojects’ bidding in foreign countries, the domestic enterprises will have the opportunities and the pressures to improve their constructionqualifications and capacity. Thedomestic enterprises have toovercome that pressure to complete to foreign enterprises, especially in current opening period.

However, if they want to stand and develop in the situation of borderless competition, the experts think that the Government needs to define the construction sector as a key sector in the national economic development strategy, as well as have the approaches to enhance the general competitiveness of the industry. In particular, it should be more drastic to simplify the procedures for construction and investment, and to conform to international practice as soon as possible.

In negotiating international agreements, it should allow Vietnamese construction enterprises to fairly operate as local contractors, be exempted from import tax on constructionmaterials and equipment.

The chairman of Vietnamese construction corporation with the most international experiences has shared that: "The domestic construction demand will be saturated when the infrastructure is basically completed. It is too late for the enterprises to expand to the foreign countries when the booming time is over.”

A typical example appeared in Korea.Korean construction firms just focused on the domestic market without preparing for international opportunities when there is the booming time of construction market. "A lot of construction companies were bankrupt; many workers are unemployed... are the lessons for seeking the opportunities in foreign countries," Mr. Hai said.

By Nam Phong

According to Economic Viability

Source: http://cafef.vn/doanh-nghiep-xay-dung-viet-nam-trong-lan-song-mang-quan-di-danh-xu-nguoi-20171227065725864.chn

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