An OV billionaire in Laos

Although his factory has only 100 employees, it can produce a large amount of steel because it is fully automated. Each production process needs only some actual workers.

His name is Khamhung Saychalon, (Pham Van Hung) and he was born in Thai Binh. During the years of the war of resistance against the US aggressors, he and his family evacuated to Nam Dinh then moved to Hoa Binh, a mountainous province in the north of Vietnam. He is the youngest child in a poor family of six people.

After returning from military service, he followed a group of people traveling to Laos to look for a means of subsistence and worked as a driver for a Vietnam-Laos joint stock building company. Overtime, he gradually became involved in the real estate market.

After three years of working for the bricklayers for Sang market in Laos, he started his own business. His time in military service had trained him to have an iron will, compassion and the patience to overcome his disadvantaged situation.

In 2001, he built a steel factory in Vientiane. He faced some challenges due to lack of capital, but he received encouragement from local authorities, overseas Vietnamese in Vientiane and Xiangkhouang province.

In 2005 he had to move his factory to the South Vientiane Industrial Zone under the Lao policy to gather all factories into one area.

Three years later, knowing that the demand for construction in Lao was increasing rapidly, especially for high rise buildings and infrastructure that consumes a large amount of steel, Hung decided to transfer his steel company to the Vietnam Ship Building Industry Group so he could build a larger one. The factory is fully automated and used US$3 million in mobilised capital, and US$2 million in investment capital to purchase the land and machinery. 

With the new factory capable of producing 60-70 tonnes of steel per day, he announced he would give the highest priority to his products’ prestige and quality. His factory’s logo shows his ambition to bring his products to all the continents around the globe.

He established four big wholesalers in the Lao capital city to meet the demand of his customers in the country’s 17 provinces and cities.

After 10 years of running his factory, Hung decided to settle in Vientiane. His company contributed tens of billions of VND the country’s budget and he has received numerous certificates of merit granted by the Lao Party and State for his tax payments, charitable works and social activities.

Having had a hard childhood himself, Hung is always eager to help disadvantaged people. As a member of the executive board of the Vietnamese community in Vientiane, he mobilises the overseas Vietnamese to raise funds to provide poor households with capital to start their own businesses and reduce poverty.

Hung is not only a talented businessman, he is also an accomplished writer and member of the club for Vietnamese poetry lovers in Laos.

His writing always shows his mind is on his native country. He said that now he is successful, he often wonders what he can do for his motherland.

Hung looks much younger than his fifty years and he is a very popular speaker. People listening to his commentary of a football match on television are reminded of two famous Vietnamese commentators on Radio the Voice of Vietnam, Hoai Son and Dinh Khai. He is usually asked to make a speech when he takes part in the Xiangkhouang Association of Fellow Countrymen.

His monologue always amuses the audiences, especially those in his factory, so they feel closer together and more responsible and proud of their work.