PEOPLE WITH “HEAVY HEART” FOR VIETNAMESE BRANDS

40 years old, 20 years of experience have helped Ms. Duong Thi Tu Trinh, Director of Thuong Nguyen Wood Processing Machinery Company (Tan Uyen Town) gain a lot of experience with machinery, understanding and a burning desire to produce wood processing machines with Vietnamese brand.

Burning desire

I have known Ms. Trinh for a long time, but only recently did I have the opportunity to meet her again. Her cheerful appearance made me feel that she was having fun or had big plans. At the corner of a coffee shop in the center of Thu Dau Mot City, she excitedly told me that she was about to attend a national wood industry conference in Hanoi, and was about to present a report at a conference on wood processing machinery technology in Vietnam. Listening to her, I admired her achievements. Her question made me a little confused with the unsympathetic thought that had just crossed my mind: “Do you think I am vain, or do you think I like to show off?” I smiled awkwardly when my thought was captured by her.

Ms. Trinh confided that 20 years of working in the profession, interacting with many wood processing enterprises, supplying many products to the market, is also 20 years of her understanding the difficulties of wood exporting enterprises in terms of financial resources as well as the desire for technological innovation. This time reporting to the Prime Minister and leaders of ministries and branches is an opportunity for her. For the past 20 years, she has always dreamed of having a Vietnamese-branded wood processing machine so that businesses can use good technology, affordable prices without changing the quality of the machines. Every time she imports goods for customers, many times she sees customers worried about financial problems… each time the desire to have a Vietnamese-branded wood processing machine is ignited in her.

Ms. Trinh shared that understanding the customer’s mind, she always tries to create the best conditions for customers. The good news is that her husband is a solid support for her to develop her career. She is always willing to spend hours consulting and convincing customers to use good technology not for profit but for the development of the business. However, any development needs to aim for sustainability. If we truly master the technology, the wood industry will have more opportunities to develop.

Talking to her, the story is always interrupted by phone calls from customers. Officers and employees of Thuong Nguyen Wood Processing Machinery Company said that Ms. Trinh often instructs her technicians on every detail when taking care of, repairing, maintaining, and operating for customers. Ms. Trinh admits that she is a perfectionist and takes on too much work. With each customer, she personally checks the satisfaction of the final customer. “It’s not that I don’t trust the staff, but I want to create the greatest peace of mind from the manufacturing enterprise, because more than anyone else I understand that the enterprise has tried very hard…”, Ms. Trinh said.

To develop Vietnamese brand machinery

We were more surprised about her when she went on stage and did not speak as she had recited last night. The entire hall of the International Convention Center (Hanoi) listened attentively to her presentation, perhaps partly because of curiosity that she was only a small business (revenue less than 100 billion VND/year), partly because she was… a woman. But ultimately, it was the attraction to the passion of this very ordinary woman. She left out all the numbers and unnecessary words, confidently talking about the importance of technology for the wood industry, the difficulties of wood exporting enterprises facing market pressure when demanding more sophisticated and beautiful products while the price remains the same.

Ms. Trinh said that in fact, Taiwanese (Chinese) wood processing enterprises have also done this very successfully and up to now, almost all Taiwanese wood processing equipment has become the best brand in the world. We can completely trust the level of Vietnamese technicians on this issue. Currently, there are some Vietnamese wood processing machinery enterprises that have done this, initially successful but still in the early stages, not yet registered for intellectual property protection rights…

Ms. Trinh said that she has recommended that the State should continue to have policies to encourage the wood processing machinery industry to develop in parallel with the wood production industry to move towards sustainable development. In addition, the State should create better conditions in terms of capital so that wood processing machinery enterprises can buy technology from countries such as Germany, Italy, Japan, etc. so that wood processing machinery enterprises can produce Vietnamese-branded machinery themselves. If wood processing machinery enterprises are allowed to buy technology themselves, they will not have enough capacity at present, because of the constraints and the cost of purchasing this equipment and machinery is up to millions of US dollars…