What is your greatest achievement

COVID-19 is back right at the year-end consumption time. Does this affect Nestlé’s business results? It is too early to quantify any impact of the latest outbreak. People are at the heart of our business and we continue to work tirelessly to keep our employees, business partners and the communities where we operate healthy and safe during the coronavirus outbreak. We are committed to ensuring continued production and delivery of our foods and beverages for Vietnamese consumers, particularly during Tet Holidays, by continuing to work closely with our supply chain, distribution and retail partners. We keep a strong belief in the capability and management of the Vietnamese Government to effectively contain any possible outbreak. Few days after the outbreak in Hai Duong, we joined effort with relevant authorities to provide people living in four lockdown districts of the province some 45,000 units of nutritional products to help them overcome the difficult time. We have also donated 100,000 milk products for nearly 1,000 school children in quarantine and hundreds of nutritional drinks for healthcare professionals in Hai Duong Centre of Disease Control. Nestlé Vietnam has recently supported the frontliners in Hai Duong to fight against COVID-19 2020 was the year highlighting the quarter-century milestone of Nestlé in Vietnam. How would you summarise this 25-year development journey? Sustainable development! Before coming to Vietnam, I had spent 23 years working for Nestlé all over Europe, America, and Asia. That time was long enough to understand that Nestlé’s “sustainable development” values must be preserved and continued in Vietnam. Over the past 155 years, the global sustainable development strategy of Nestlé group has been built on three areas under our influence: Individuals and families; Community; and Planet. In Vietnam, all business and social activities have been consistently aimed to do good in these three areas for the past …

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"My companies and I have made some meaningful and practical community activities with a view to supporting the homeland to overcome the difficulties." What were your biggest concerns when looking back at a turbulent 2020? The past 13 months has been a journey fraught with challenges for most businesses, including our companies. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread across the world, including the United States. Meanwhile, Vietnam is continuing its fight against the pandemic as well as recovering from the natural disasters like saline intrusion, floods, and landslides. Thus, my companies and I have made some meaningful and practical community activities with a view to supporting the homeland to overcome the difficulties. When the US declared states of emergency in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, it witnessed a severe scarcity in medical equipment especially face masks. At that time, CWS donated 40,000 N95 face masks to the US. The company also ordered 80,000 cloth face masks and 1.5 million surgical face masks from Vietnam to give the American people. In mid-April 2020, CWS donated $100,000 to the COVID-19 Prevention Fund by the Consulate General of Vietnam in San Francisco. In November the company granted an additional $120,000 to the Consulate General of Vietnam in San Francisco to support the residents of the flood-hit central region. At the event, the Vietnam American Business Association (VABA), where I am chairman, also granted $51,000 to the central region. As of present, the total sum CWS, VWS, and VABA have donated to Vietnam amounts to $171,000. VWS also gifted VND200 million ($8,700) to the Standing Committee of the Vietnamese Fatherland Front to support the fight against COVID-19, as well as drought and salinity in the south of Vietnam. Despite these moderate contributions to help residents in the central region, these grants reflect the warm hearts of Vietnamese people living in the US as well as the children living far away …

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The week-long 13th National Party Congress, which wrapped up on February 1, established the country’s new Party Central Committee (PCC) for the 2021-2026 tenure. The new committee includes 180 official members and 20 alternate members, who are leaders within the Party, the National Assembly’s (NA) bodies, the government’s ministries, and relevant agencies. Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong was re-elected for his post, in what will be an unprecedented third 5-year term as the country’s top leader. The election recognised that Trong, also the incumbent State President, has managed state affairs in a stable manner, including the containment of the COVID-19 pandemic, boosting economic development, and management of an anti-corruption campaign against senior officials and executives of state-owned enterprises. The 76-year-old leader will be the Party’s first general secretary to gain a third term since Vietnam was reunified in 1975. “The new PCC promises to congress, the Party, the entire people, and the armed forces that will all make the greatest efforts to accomplish all tasks and inherit the tradition and revolutionary achievements that the country has reaped,” he stated. “Together with the Party and all people, we will also continue promoting the glorious traditions and experiences of the Party and the nation, strengthening solidarity and consensus in ideology and action.” The 13th National Party Congress laid out development courses for the country not only in the short-term, but also with an ambitious vision to become a high-income developed socialist-oriented nation by 2045, when the country marks the 100th year of its independence. The new PCC is expected to help to address national challenges and drive the country forward in service of the public and the business community. More sturdy economic reforms are also expected over the next years to hit higher and improve economic growth, along with more employment to be generated. The …

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