In the Technical and Economic Justification Report for Bien Hoa 2 Industrial Park, it was proposed that a 2×63 MVA substation be installed near the main transformer station of Vietnam Electricity located right in this industrial park. This proposal was agreeable with Power Company II in Ho Chi Minh City in principle.

However, due to the limited power supply in the early 1990s, large-volume supply of electricity to Bien Hoa 2 Industrial Park had to be reviewed by Vietnam Electricity Corporation based on national power supply. Mr. Pham Xuan Bach – Sonadezi’s Former Deputy CEO was assigned by the Company to submit the proposals to the Hanoi-based Vietnam Electricity Corporation to get approval. This was not an easy task.

Mr. Pham Xuan Bach said: “After arriving at Hanoi, after several contacts, I eventually found the right officer tasked to handle our proposal. After reviews, the proposal had to be revised several times.

In my last visit, after receiving the additional documents sent by the Company, in early working hours of the day, I visited the Office of Vietnam Electricity Corporation again to submit the documents to the officer in charge. He received and screened quickly the documents and found that there were no more issues, then placed the documents on his desk then said: “Your submission was fine. Let me handle it, and you can come here tomorrow to receive the results.” With so much pain with similar promises, I told him: “If you are busy handling other tasks, you can keep doing those tasks first, I can have some water while waiting because I would have nothing to do if I return to my hotel now.” So, without waiting for him to respond, I went to the table for some water and pulled up a chair to sit down waiting. I made some tea myself and quietly sat down to light a cigarette. Time passed quietly and the officer was busy working, seemingly not paying attention to my presence.

It was near noon, and, seemingly unable to bear my patience, he approached my table and sat down on a chair. I remained silent, reaching for the teapot and pouring him a cup of hot tea. He cleared his throat, picked up the cup of tea, had a sip, and asked: “Can you type on a computer?” Following my “yes” response, he immediately said: “Come out here, I’ll read it for you to type.” “Looks like it’s going my way,” I think and sit in front of his computer.

He slowly read it and I typed the approval letter of the Vietnam Electricity Corporation, allowing Sonadezi to build and install a 110/22 KV, 2 x 63 MVA transformer station in Bien Hoa 2 Industrial Park using its own funding. Power was sourced from the 110 KV Long Binh transformer station. I was as happy as if I had caught gold, but I remained calm, neither overjoyed nor too impatient. After I finished typing, he read it over several times from beginning to end, corrected a few sentences, and then asked me to print out a few copies.

After carefully reading it again, he placed his initial next to the place where the General Director would sign and told me: “Can you bring this upstairs, into the General Director’s office, and present it to him for signature. I have just informed him on this already.” I then brought the draft letter to the General Director’s office for signing. The General Director read the draft letter carefully, signed it, and told me: “You should now bring it down to the office so that it can be numbered and stamped.” I thanked the General Director and brought it down to the office. After the letter was numbered and stamped, a copy was filed there and another one was given to me for our next steps.

I brought the letter copies to the officer in charge and said: “It’s done.” He seemed satisfied, after reading the letter, gave me an original and said: “You’re fearlessly calm, aren’t you?” I smiled and shook his hand, thanked him and left, feeling strangely happy.

That same afternoon, I changed my air ticket to fly to the South immediately. Many investors were waiting for this all-important substation. I smiled when recalling the praise of the officer in charge: “You’re fearlessly calm, aren’t you?”