Truong Hai Auto Corporation: Brings party resolutions into business development strategy

15 years ago, Tran Ba Duong, Chairman of the Board at THACO, decided to turn Chu Lai, an area with severe weather conditions in Quang Nam Province, into an automotive engineering hub of the whole country. At that time, many people thought he could hardly overcome this big challenge. But he has succeeded. THACO has successfully manufactured various types of auto, including buses, trucks and touring cars. The world’s famous auto firms, such as Mazda, Kia, Peugeot and Hyundai, have chosen THACO to be their reliable partner.

As a multi-sector business with 16,000 employees, THACO not only concentrates on efforts to increase labor productivity and manufacturing output to achieve its revenue and profit targets but also pays great attention to trade union activities, especially the implementation of party resolutions, to ensure worker interests. According to Nguyen Hung Minh, General Director and Secretary of THACO’s Party Committee, the corporation’s party committee was established in January 1998 and initially operated as a party cell of a company limited with just three party members. Currently, THACO’s Party Committee consists of six subsidiaries with 103 party members.

Nguyen Hung Minh said the corporation has made party resolutions part of its production and business development strategies and action plans. Subsidiaries of THACO’s Party Committee convene their members every month to work out monthly and quarterly action plans, bringing into play the leading role of the party committee and its subsidiaries in production and business development activities. “Our periodical meetings enable us to deal on a timely basis with problems facing employees to make them feel encouraged to further contribute to the corporation’s development,” he added.

Tran Thanh Dung has worked at the corporation’s Culture and Communications Department for more than three years and has been a party member for five years. Dung used to be a state employee before he joined THACO. After a four-month period of probation, he started his official job at THACO and joined activities of the corporation’s party committee. He said working in the environment of a private company gives him easy access to the party’s policies and resolutions.

According to Nguyen Hung Minh, to cope with competition after Vietnam reduces taxes on auto imports from other ASEAN countries to zero percent next year, THACO’s Party Committee has released a resolution highlighting the necessity of developing new products, raising the local content rate, and applying new technology to improve product quality and increase labor productivity. In the first eight months of this year, THACO sold 60,956 vehicles, taking the lead in the Vietnamese auto market with its share reaching 36.8 percent; revenue reached more than VND33.77 trillion; profit VND3.23 trillion; tax payment VND9.71 trillion; and average worker income ranged from VND7-10 million per person per month.

From a small private company, THACO has successfully overcome difficulties and made great efforts to develop and become a leading business in the Vietnamese automotive industry sector. Its manufacturing center in the Chu Lai Open Economic Zone (Quang Nam Province) covers a total area of 400ha and consists of six automobile assembly plants, 12 support industry plants, a research and development (R&D) center, a vocational college and a port. The corporation has promoted support industries to raise the local content rate to more than 50 percent for buses, 30-35 percent for trucks, and more than 18 percent for touring cars. Many kinds of components and spare parts manufactured in Chu Lai have been exported to ASEAN countries.

Last year, revenue of Quang Nam Province’s state budget reached VND20 trillion, of which more than VND14 trillion came from THACO through tax payments. THACO Party Committee Secretary Nguyen Hung Minh said that in 2017, the corporation’s party committee will intensify the dissemination of the 12th Party Central Committee’s resolution, admit 15 new party members, and establish a new subsidiary in the north to contribute to successful implementation of THACO’s production and business development plans.