Could you highlight the company’s business performance in 2022, and your expectations and plans for this year?

Bolat Duisenov, chairman at Coteccons

In 2022, the company implemented 65 projects spanning from north to south in Vietnam. Key ventures include Lego, Diamond Crown in the northern port city of Haiphong, and a VinFast factory, among others.

As of now, our total revenues are about $630 million, fulfilling 97 per cent of our plan, and profits also reached our plan. For 2023, we have conservative figures based on the existing backlog, which is expected to increase by 10-20 per cent compared to last year.

We aimed to be cautious in 2022 and it was not an easy year for the market. We did struggle too, but we managed to achieve a positive business performance. Thanks to such a positive result, we stay competitive to bid for both public and commercial projects.

It is said that Coteccons’ bad debt could reach over $113 million, and Nam Hoi An Casino, SonKim Land, NovaLand, and others lead to an increase in the number of provisions. What is your plan for receivables in these?

These are great customers, and we are proud to have built great projects for them. Not every construction company can complete ventures at such a large scale, but Coteccons has built iconic buildings in major cities.

In terms of risks, some are unpredictable. The pandemic was one example, and 2023 will not be an easy year given market fluctuations. Therefore, all companies will face challenges. We are constantly looking at receivables as well as projects and customers. To date, we have not seen any risks with receivables from these customers, including failure to recover such amounts.

In 2023, we will enhance risk management by taking more steps in the business process before deciding if we are going to join a particular initiative. We used to just look at a project technically to see if we could meet the requirements of the investor, but we now consider the financial health of our clients before deciding if we are going to partner with them.

Vietnam has recently called for more intensive public investment. Have you had any specific strategies or actions?

There are currently many ventures developed on the market and Coteccons has been involved in considerable mega-projects. When it comes to such large projects, Coteccons doesn’t go all out to get them – we will analyse its risks, what needs to be prepared, what values it will bring to us in the future, and whether it is in line with our infrastructure development policy.

In the infrastructure development segment, we also have numerous projects underway, but most of those are buildings or residential areas. In the near future, our board will assign dedicated teams in charge of infrastructure development.

At least one rival is facing an internal crisis. Does Coteccons take this type of event as an opportunity in terms of regaining the position of largest construction company by revenue in Vietnam?

Coteccons is often called the largest or a leading construction company, but we would prefer to be mentioned with humility. It is true that we are a big company with 2,000 employees. Most of them are civil engineers, who are doers rather than talkers.

We know what our company’s values are and what to do to protect those values. We set strategies to agree with each other on bringing these values to our customers, partners, shareholders, and employees. We absolutely do not believe in the idea that a single person can do it all, especially in this industry.

A company that keeps comparing itself to others will always find ways to change and not be truly itself. Once again, we know very well what we need to do and how to do it to build a great company, so we need to be patient and act step by step.

We have defined our direction, and our vision will not change just to go along with people’s comparisons. Our whole team share the same vision and stick with it.