A cable-laying army unit became Vietnam’s largest telecom and a ten-country multinational. Here is how the model works and where it strains.
Startup · Topic
Vietnam Company Stories — Page 3
Expert guides, analysis and tool comparisons on Vietnam Company Stories from the kurums.com Startup desk — written for business decision-makers and updated as the market moves.
- 55 guides
- 11 subtopics
- Updated Sep 13, 2026
Vietnam Banking & Finance 5
Vietnam Founders & Conglomerates 5
Vietnam Tourism, Aviation & Hospitality 5
Vietnam Automotive & Mobility 5
Vietnam Telecom, Tech & Startups 5
Vietnam Real Estate & Construction 5
Vietnam Agriculture & Commodities 5
Vietnam Retail & Consumer 5
Vietnam Energy & Utilities 5
Vietnam Electronics & Manufacturing 5
Vietnam FDI, Trade & Global Expansion 5
All guides · page 3
The $67 Billion Railway: Vietnam’s North-South High-Speed Line
Vietnam approved a $67 billion, 350 km/h railway its parliament had rejected in 2010. Then its two biggest tycoons offered to build it with state money.
Hoa Phat: The Steel Company That Outbuilt the State
While the state’s flagship mill rusted half-built, a machinery trader became Southeast Asia’s largest steelmaker. Now it wants to roll the high-speed rails.
Novaland: How Vietnam’s Second Developer Ran Out of Cash
Novaland bought a decade of land with two-year money. When the bond market shut in October 2022, the second-largest developer in Vietnam had weeks of cash left.
Van Thinh Phat and SCB: Anatomy of a $12 Billion Bank Fraud
One woman secretly owned Vietnam’s largest private bank and lent 93 percent of its money to herself. Here is how it worked and how it ended.
Vinhomes: The Developer That Builds Cities and Funds a Conglomerate
Vinhomes sells more homes than any developer in Vietnamese history, and nearly all the cash flows upward to a conglomerate that spends it on cars and trains.
Cashew and Pepper: The Processing Empires Vietnam Built on Imported Nuts
Vietnam cracks the world’s cashews with machines it invented and nuts it imports, and the suppliers now want the processing back.
The Durian Boom: How One Fruit Became a Multibillion-Dollar Export to China
A single customs protocol turned a smuggled fruit into a $3 billion export in two years; a single testing rule showed how fragile that was.
Minh Phu and the Shrimp Kings: Vietnam’s $10 Billion Seafood Trade
A Cà Mau family firm, a Japanese trading house and a $10 billion seafood trade squeezed between Ecuador’s cheap shrimp and Washington’s tariffs.
Vietnam Rice: From Famine to Top-Three Exporter in a Generation
One land reform, one delta, three crops a year: how Vietnam went from food aid to nine million tonnes of rice exports, and why the model is straining.
Robusta Nation: How Vietnam Became the World’s Second Coffee Exporter
How a bean the industry called filler made Vietnam the world’s second coffee exporter, and why the highlands that grew it are now under strain.
Highlands, Trung Nguyên and Phúc Long: The Battle for Vietnam’s Coffee Shops
Coffee is cheap and everywhere in Vietnam; the fight between Highlands, Trung Nguyên and Phúc Long is about rent, brand and who pays for a seat.
