Vingroup vice chairman says the Vietnam National Exhibition Center completion pace is a record

Completed 15 months ahead of schedule, this project marks a distinctive record for the speed of Vingroup.

On the afternoon of April 13, Investor Magazine organized the conference “40 years of Reform: The Leading Role of Economic Groups”. At the event, experts discussed leadership roles and policy recommendations for robust development of economic conglomerates.

Decision to enter the automotive sector

Mr. Le Khac Hiep, Vice Chairman of Vingroup, shared insights about the decision to enter the automotive sector and the core factors enabling the Group to achieve breakthrough development speed.

Mr. Hiep said that to understand VinFast’s rapid development, it is necessary to look back at Vingroup’s history. Before entering the automotive field, Vingroup had developed strongly in real estate, tourism, healthcare, and retail.

He added that the Group’s chairman, Pham Nhat Vuong, has been concerned that focusing only on these fields would limit Vingroup’s contribution to raising living standards for Vietnamese people and guiding domestic enterprises.

However, Mr. Hiep noted that staying in these fields would make Vietnam’s deeper integration into the global value chain difficult. Therefore, Vingroup chose the automotive sector as the breakthrough, reflecting the group’s strategic vision and its leader’s direction. “To develop a country, one must first have a developed industrial base,” he said.

How deadlines and execution speed were built

Mr. Hiep said that in the early stage, many milestones seemed almost impossible to achieve, but over time those limits were shortened. For example, a project that previously took about two years to complete was later reduced to 1–1.5 years.

He explained that the Group’s leadership repeatedly set deadlines that were tighter and harder to meet to create pressure and shape Vingroup’s distinctive speed. A notable example was the National Exhibition Center in Co Loa (Dong Anh).

Mr. Hiep said that while a similar project in many other countries could take 3–4 years, Vingroup completed it in only 10 months. “This shows that with strong determination and maximum effort from the entire system, goals once thought unattainable can be achieved,” he said.

Project data and scale

The Vietnam National Exhibition Center (VEC) is Southeast Asia’s largest exhibition complex and ranks among the world’s top 10. The project was completed in just 10 months, 15 months faster than planned, setting a construction speed record in Vietnam for a large-scale exhibition project.

The center covers more than 900,000 m2, including 304,000 m2 of indoor exhibition space. It is designed to host national and international political, economic, cultural, and tourism events, and is positioned as a driver for the development of Vietnam’s modern exhibition economy.