Oil and gas people and multicultural environment
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| Dr. Nguyen Van Hoi - Chairman of BSR Board of Directors at the Annual Forum on Culture with Enterprises in 2024 |
The reason why we say the multicultural environment is “familiar” is because the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (Petrovietnam) was the first unit to establish a joint venture with a foreign country right after the country was completely unified. On June 19, 1981, the signing ceremony of the intergovernmental agreement between Vietnam and the Soviet Union on the establishment of the Vietsovpetro Joint Venture took place. After the policy of opening up, it was not until April 7, 1988 that the license for the first foreign direct investment (FDI) project was officially granted by the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations to the joint venture between Hong Kong’s Hochimex Company and Ba Ria - Vung Tau Tourism Company.
It is worth mentioning here that the first generation of Petrovietnam officers and employees all worked, studied and grew up mostly at Vietsovpetro. In other words, oil and gas people have lived and worked in a multicultural environment since the very first days.
From the orientation of the Party and the Government, the openness of the Vietnamese economy is increasingly growing, from 2 million USD invested in the first project in Vung Tau in 1988 to now there are more than 26,400 other projects with a capital scale of nearly 335 billion USD. That is not to mention that every year there are thousands of new enterprises established, merged, and separated due to foreign factors. Therefore, Vietnamese workers are increasingly familiar with the way of working in a multicultural environment.
Sharing at the forum "Culture with businesses" in 2024, Dr. Nguyen Van Hoi - Chairman of Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Joint Stock Company (BSR) said that Dung Quat Oil Refinery is the first factory in Vietnam and is also the key point in the final stage of the oil and gas value chain.
Foreign workers at Vietsovpetro are always given the best working conditions and enjoy comprehensive welfare policies.
When building the factory, we encountered many difficulties such as the location of the factory in a remote area, especially the difficulty of the multicultural operating environment. Because the factory construction project was originally planned to cooperate with Russia (in 1999), then Russia withdrew from the project, so we did it ourselves by signing contracts with contractors from France, Japan, Malaysia, Korea, and England.
In such a multicultural context, the Vietnamese side almost had to “fight” to push the project progress. Working with international partners requires a specific plan, a clear progress schedule that must be completed, but Vietnam is always flexible, depending on the situation, it can change and adjust the plan.
Oil and gas people and multicultural environment
For example, one day, suddenly some people came to cause trouble because there were disagreements about the site clearance work. Immediately, the contractors would take note so that the next day they could send a report to the investor, clearly calculating how much work they had "lost" the day before, how much equipment on the construction site was not working... then "give" a figure of about 20-30 thousand USD in damages. The project investor, Petrovietnam, also had to take note of that figure but it was very difficult to handle because there was no basis, and it was impossible to force the people to "pay". To handle this, senior leaders of Petrovietnam and the Project Management Board continuously connected and negotiated with the contractors, and organized meetings between groups. Thereby, sharing each other's difficulties, from "confrontation", gradually the parties sympathized, moving to cooperation on the construction site so that the work became more and more favorable.
Or like on the construction site, Vietnam often organizes to launch emulation movements but for foreigners there is no such concept, even their language does not have any words to talk about emulation movements, only plans and progress. Therefore, when we talk to our partners about organizing emulation movements on the construction site, they do not understand. It takes a lot of persuasion for the contractors to accept and sign the emulation minutes. Especially the actual effectiveness on the construction site as well as production and business are the most convincing evidence for partners to recognize and agree.
Dr. Nguyen Van Hoi emphasized that to work in a multicultural environment, it is necessary to have good foreign language skills, cultivate solid knowledge, use soft measures "team building" to always connect, harmonize, and share equally with partners so that the "strange" things about culture and working style become familiar to aim at the goal of completing work in the best way.
It should also be added that not only Vietsovpetro and BSR but also many other units in Petrovietnam such as Vietnam Oil Corporation - JSC (PVOIL), Vietnam Gas Corporation - JSC (PV GAS), Vietnam Oil and Gas Technical Services Corporation (PTSC) ... have established many joint ventures, branches, and offices with personnel from many countries around the world, operating in many territories and countries across 5 continents. Among them, there are many foreigners who have chosen Vietnam to stay and live long-term when their labor contracts expire.
Vietnamese culture in general, and Petrovietnam’s business culture in particular, is not only full of humanity but also has strong empathy because it is crystallized from the spirit of “Connection - Sharing”. In a multicultural environment, oil and gas people have promoted and further cultivated those cultural beauties, together with partners to overcome disagreements, become more connected and cooperate effectively. Thanks to that, the culture of oil and gas people has made an important contribution to the sustainable development of Petrovietnam over the past 63 years.
By 2024, Petrovietnam will have 16 units recognized as meeting Vietnamese business culture standards, including the Group and 16 member units and level 3 enterprises. |
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Source: https://www.pvn.vn/chuyen-muc/tap-doan/tin/2c9e169e-9c98-44a8-b895-b23df558644e
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