On February 25th, VinFast’s electric car production plant in India was inaugurated on a 160-hectare site in the industrial park operated by the Tamil Nadu Industrial Promotion Corporation (SIPCOT) in the outskirts of Thoothukudi, with an investment capital of 2 billion USD. In the initial phase, the Vietnamese company will invest 500 million USD.
According to Vinfast’s statement, the production capacity will reach 150,000 vehicles per year and create 3,000-3,500 new jobs in the initial phase. When the entire sum of 2 billion USD is invested, the project will create direct and indirect employment for about 10,000 people.
At the event, Mr. Pham Sanh Chau, VinFast’s CEO in India, stated: “This facility will not only serve the development objectives in the Indian market but also cater to the export demand to South Asian, Middle Eastern, and African countries.”
Mr. Chau added: “Furthermore, the project will promote the development of green transportation, an important initiative of the Indian Government and states to reduce carbon emissions in the transportation sector, aiming to achieve 30% of new private cars registered to be electric.”
Mr. Pham Sanh Chau, CEO of VinFast India, former Ambassador of Vietnam to South Asian countries.
Notably, Mr. Pham Sanh Chau, CEO of VinFast India, previously served as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to the Republic of India, concurrently accredited to the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal and the Kingdom of Bhutan from 2018 to 2022.
Mr. Pham Sanh Chau was born in 1961 in Myanmar, into a diplomatic family. From an early age, he experienced and absorbed multiple cultures, starting with the Myanmar native culture, followed by Slavic and Middle Eastern culture during his adolescence while accompanying his family on overseas assignments.
From 1999 to 2003, Mr. Chau was appointed as the youngest Ambassador, Head of the Permanent Delegation of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to UNESCO, Paris, France. He was also appointed by the Vietnamese government as Representative of the President of Vietnam to the Francophonie (2000-2003).
From 2011 to 2014, he was appointed as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Vietnam to the Kingdom of Belgium and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, concurrently accredited as the Head of the Vietnamese Delegation to the European Union.
In 2016, he was appointed as the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. In the same year, he became the Special Envoy of the Prime Minister of Vietnam for UNESCO-related issues.
Mr. Pham Sanh Chau was also the Secretary-General of the Vietnamese National Commission for UNESCO and the Director of the External Cultural and UNESCO Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He graduated from the Vietnam Foreign Affairs Academy in 1982 and pursued international relations, international law, strategic studies, etc. in the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United States, Norway, etc.
Mr. Pham Sanh Chau held various positions in Vietnam’s foreign affairs sector.
From an unwanted place to genuine love
Mr. Pham Sanh Chau, while serving as the Ambassador of Vietnam to India, once stated in an interview that “India was not a place I desired to go to.” According to him, living conditions in India were very difficult, polluted in the dry season, and extremely cold in winter; the cuisine was challenging to adapt to; the Vietnamese community was scarce, and the cultures differed significantly.
He continued, “I learned to love this country and eventually realized that when a diplomat tries to genuinely love the country in which he is on a mission, that diplomat becomes happier.”
He once shared that he preferred to be a businessman rather than a diplomat.
During his tenure as the Ambassador of Vietnam to India, Mr. Pham Sanh Chau developed numerous relationships, not only in the political sphere but also with scholars, monks, and particularly businesspeople in India.
“Thanks to that, after a few years as an Ambassador in India, I have established a fairly solid network in this country,” he said.
Mr. Chau remarked that his personality was more suited to being an entrepreneur. “After retiring, I will devote the remaining years of my life to test myself in this field, to fully utilize the capabilities that I had not been able to utilize while working in diplomacy,” Mr. Pham Sanh Chau shared.
And now, Mr. Pham Sanh Chau has assumed the role of CEO of VinFast India as a businessperson.
(Compiled)
