At the 2nd Cantho Patriotic Congress (July 20, 2005), Nguyen Tri Tue - Director of the private enterprise Tri Tue (Cai Son Industrial Park - Hang Bang, Ninh Kieu District, Can Tho city) - present with a calm voice and full of confidence on the stage of the meeting. Everyone did not seem to focus on his appearance but on his story about hardships that he went through and his initial concern in finding directions for the business, and admire his determination to explore, research and successfully produce many high-quality vulcanized rubber items.
Nguyen Tri Tue comes from Long My (Hau Giang) and is the fifth child among seven siblings. His destitute childhood stretched through the war fire. During that period, his father - Mr. Nguyen Thanh Lam, who was the Head of the Propaganda Department of Long My district - was often absent from home. His mother - Hai Loi - has to work strenuously as a hired laborer to raise their children. In October 1969, after the American puppet raid on the Long My revolutionary base, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Lam was captured by the enemy. After the brutal torture without information, this loyal revolutionary cadre was condemned to death when Tue was just 5 years old then. He said: “Later, being told about my father's tough fight and heroic sacrifice, I am very proud and always tell myself to live worthy of my father's sacrifice".
In 1985, Tue passed the entrance exam to the Chemistry Department, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology. At that time, his family met many difficulties. Sympathizing his mother's suffering (after him, there are 2 younger sisters who are still in school), Tue is determined to overcome difficulties by himself in order to share the burden on his old mother. Besides class time and union work, Tue took advantage of his free time translating specialized documents from English into Vietnamese, supporting some projects, and all sorts of tasks to earn money to pursue school.
In 1990, Tue graduated and returned to Can Tho, hoping to find a job appropriate to his major. For several consecutive months, he could not find any job. In early 1991, Tue got a job at Can Tho Packaging Company. After a period of work, Tue realized that his knowledge was not enough and returned to Ho Chi Minh City with aim of learning to improve his qualifications and skills. In 1992, Tue joined Dien Bien Rubber Factory (Southern Rubber Corporation). A few months later, he applied to transfer to Vietnam Rubber Research Institute (District 3, Ho Chi Minh City) to have conditions for in-depth research on rubber. During the two years at the Institute, Tue was regularly present in the library and laboratory, even slept there some days. Taking advantage of his free time, he took English tutoring for employees in Ben Cat (Binh Duong) to earn extra income.
The work was "smooth sailing" until in 1994, Tue had an accident that his entire face was deformed from burns and many body parts were also injured. Over a year, he was hospitalized. About the same amount of time, his mother relentlessly moved from Can Tho to Ho Chi Minh City to take care of her child. "More than a year after, I saw my face and ... I panicked, in extreme pain because I could not recognize myself with such a wrinkled, ugly face!". Tue recounted with a fully emotional voice. That year, this young engineer turned 30 years old.
After leaving the hospital, Tue returned to Can Tho to live with her mother. He turned from an active young man, longing for dedication to a pessimistic, desperate one after leaving the hospital because of the wounds on his face and body. He thought of death several times. But then... the love of his mom, the indomitable sacrifice of his father, the care and encouragement of his siblings has helped him overcomeS his feelings of inferiority and has more courage to live.
At the end of 1995, within less than one million dong, plus a factory area of only 10 square meters, Tue started to produce vulcanized rubber products. He said: “The production of products such as tires and car tires is popular and I have only a small amount of capital invested, so it is difficult to make a profit. Therefore, I decided to research and manufacture products that require high technology, good quality standards, serving industries, construction, transportation ... which must be imported".
Firstly, Tue came to the scrapyards, bought scrap iron bars and carefully checked details and then welded them into a manual rubber press. From this rudimentary machine, Tue produces the first product, the circular loom roller with the price of 30,000 VND/roller, while had previously been priced at 160,000 VND/roller if imported from abroad. Tue's products do not have customers due to lack of advertisement. After a while, he finally found a big customer, Can Tho Packaging Company. Tue uses the revenue from the first products to invest in more specialized machinery and equipment for production expansion. Products are also more diversified such as: joint, rubber seal with technical characteristics such as high heat resistance, good wear resistance, impact resistance, vibration resistance ... which are ordered by many well-known factories in southern provinces.
In 1999, one of his classmates working at Bourbon Tay Ninh Sugar Factory asked Tue to manufacture butterfly valves (high heat resistance). From this point, Tue has new customers, but he is stressed because the production equipment of the establishment was both lacking and weak and unable to meet the demand of the signed contract. After brainstorming, Tue boldly borrowed money from relatives and friends to invest in production lines and set up Tri Tue Private Enterprise. In early 2000, Tri Tue Private Enterprise completely moved into Cai Son - Hang Bang Industrial Park (An Binh ward, Ninh Kieu district) to operate.
By his own experience and through market research, in 2001, Tue studied in-depth and produced rubber bearings for propeller shaft support - an important product for the operation in the marine and river transport industry that Vietnam still has had to import. To achieve this success, Tue spent more than a year researching, with dozens of test production failures. Finally, he could prepare a chemical used for mixing rubber to produce a product with high elasticity, heat resistance and good bearing capacity. At the end of 2002, the Tri Tue brand of rubber bearings supporting the propeller shaft was on the market. At first, this product was difficult to find customers. Not to be discouraged, Tue persisted in bringing products to offer everywhere. Finally, Transportation Engineering and Repair Company 721 signed a contract to buy his products to replace all kinds of stern tube bearings for ferries (which had previously been purchased from Denmark). Currently, Tri Tue Private Enterprise has signed a series of contracts for the regular supply of rubber bearings to support propeller shafts for large shipbuilding companies in Ho Chi Minh City. Up to now, after nearly 5 years of operation, Tri Tue Private Enterprise products are increasingly diversified and plentiful, favored by a large number of domestic and foreign customers such as: rubber dampers, rubber fender supporting girder traffic bridges, various types of propeller shaft bearings, rubber rolls used in printing, paper production, packaging,...
Although the assets of the business have reached several billion VND, this 40-year-old director still maintains his ambition to dedicate, create and affirm his company brand by high-quality vulcanized rubber products accepted by various domestic and international customers.
Mr. Mung, the foreman of the plumbing factory of Can Tho Water Supply and Sewerage Company talking about Tue, his close classmate, has admitted: “I am very proud of Tue. From tribulation and lack of money, Tue has built up his career with a solid base and a brand of high-quality rubber products in Vietnam. It's so admirable!".
Not only Mr. Mung, many Can Tho people are also very proud of Tue who is one of nine representatives of the city participating in the National Patriotic Congress taking place in Hanoi in September 2005. In that delegation, Tue was the representative of the aspiration of youth who refused surrender to fate and lived worthy of the family's revolutionary tradition, rose to get rich legitimately, and made a worthy contribution to the country renewal.
Source: baocantho.com.vn August 31, 2005
