Billionaire Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao wants Vietnam to become the world’s aviation center.

She shared her thoughts while attending the Government Standing Committee Conference chaired by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, discussing solutions to contribute to the country’s socio-economic development with many business leaders on September 21.

Here, billionaire Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao – Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Sovico Group, and Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Vietjet Air said that the unit currently has more than 100 new, modern, fuel-efficient aircraft. The airline always carries the red flag with yellow star, the melody Hello Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh Song and the symbol of Vietnamese tourism with more than 200 million passengers transported, nearly 150 domestic and international routes.

At the same time, she aims to promote the aviation industry to innovate from petroleum engineering, flight operations, “awaken” dozens of local airports, attract foreign investment in training, technology, component manufacturing…

Sovico and Vietjet have established an Innovation Hub to bring Vietnamese brands to the world, bringing Pho Thin and Vietnamese bread on planes to introduce to international customers. With the spirit of “wherever Vietnamese planes fly, the Vietnamese sky opens up”, Vietjet established Vietjet Thailand with 20 aircraft, among the leading airlines in Thailand.

Vietjet’s Chairman said that in Vietnam, the airline brings in about 30-40% of the revenue of aviation and petroleum service businesses… in the state system. In 2023, the airline will transport up to 6.8 million international passengers, promoting tourism with new routes bringing new visitors from India with a population of 1.4 billion; Indonesia with a population of 300 million, Australia, Kazakhstan, the gateway to Russia, and the Central Asia region with a population of 200 million.

Recently, the unit also transferred passengers from India, Kazakhstan to Vietnam to Australia, Indonesia… at the same time, building Vietnam as a center for training human resources and aviation technology. Vietjet Aviation Academy has cooperated with Airbus and trained 50,000 students each year.

“Businesses should dream big, turning Vietnam into a dynamic center for aviation development in the region and the world. With a favorable location, we should urgently invest and upgrade the international airport system to become an international passenger and cargo transit center such as Bangkok, Singapore, Korea…”, she emphasized.

The female billionaire also affirmed that Vietnam has the conditions and capacity to build a hangar system – infrastructure for a regional-scale aircraft technical service center at one of Vietnam’s airports.

Currently, domestic enterprises have begun to produce aircraft components. With a large number of aircraft orders, Vietnam has the conditions to become a component manufacturing center and develop the aircraft assembly and support industry, just like China produces Boeing aircraft components and assembles Airbus aircraft.

In addition, the businesswoman and her team are also determined to fulfill the growth targets set by the Government. In particular, Sovico Group and businesses such as Vietjet continue to make efforts and contribute to the development of Vietnam’s aviation and tourism industries.