President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. held a private meeting with Vingroup Chairman Pham Nhat Vuong and the group’s senior executives in Hanoi as part of his state visit to Vietnam this week. It was announced on the website of Vingroup that the meeting was attended by a delegation that included Secretary of Foreign Affairs Enrique A. Manalo, Secretary of Trade and Industry Alfredo E. Pascual, Secretary of Agriculture Francisco T. Laurel, other leaders of several government agencies and major Philippine companies.
Vingroup is Vietnam’s largest conglomerate and according to its online post, its chairman took the opportunity to introduce the member companies in the Vingroup ecosystem with plans to invest in the Philippine market. He highlighted VinFast, a global electric vehicle brand with a diverse range of products including full electric motorcycles, cars, and buses. Aside from its EV business, other points of interest include prospects for cooperation in developing public services such as buses, taxis, and training students in artificial intelligence and medicine.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. expressed keen interest and welcomed the alignment between Vingroup’s interests and the country’s development directions, particularly in electric vehicles and batteries.
“The Philippines is fortunate to have all the necessary ingredients to produce batteries for electric vehicles, with abundant reserves of cobalt, copper and nickel. However, it has still been exporting raw ores. The government is working to increase the value of the Philippine economy by processing them domestically and expects to be able to establish a battery factory. This is in line with Vingroup’s vision”, Marcos said.
VinFast Auto Philippines Corporation is looking to launch its line of EVs in the Philippines sometime within the first half of 2024. It has already started to recruit some executives and talents to lead the team in establishing its foothold in the market. We’ll have more about this developing story soon.
