HO CHI MINH CITY - Meet Ly Qui Trung, the bold new face of Vietnamese free enterprise. Hailing from a once-influential family in the former South Vietnam, and later displaced and impoverished by the communist takeover in 1975, Trung has emerged 31 years on as one of Vietnam’s most visible young capitalists.
Trung, 39, is the founder of the Nam An Group, the holding company behind the Pho24 fast-food chain, one of Vietnam’s most successful home-grown franchises. Armed with a PhD in business administration from Australia and a drive to get rich quick, Trung opened the first branch of Pho24 in 2003 in Ho Chi Minh City with the aim of feeding into the city’s fast-growing foreign-tourist market.
Pho24’s unique blend of pho (beef noodles) and air-conditioned McDonald’s-style dining proved equally popular with the locals, who now represent more than half of his clientele.
Last year, 530 foreign and local brand names were franchised and another 811 franchises were transferred into Vietnam, according to the National Department of Intellectual Property (NDIP). Foreign fast-food franchises are slowly finding their place alongside the country’s traditional shophouse vendors, including the likes of KFC, Jollibee and Dilmah (a teahouse chain).
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