Chairman of the SCIC Board of Members, Nguyen Chi Thanh, discusses potential breakthroughs in pharmaceutical production with SK Group (South Korea)

On the afternoon of October 25, 2023 at SCIC’s headquarters, Chairman of the Board of Members of SCIC, Mr. Nguyen Chi Thanh, received and had a productive meeting with SK Group of South Korea led by Ms. Chaerhan Chun, General Director of SK Vietnam.

Attending the meeting, on SCIC's side, were Mr. Nguyen Chi Thanh - Chairman of the Board of Members, Mr. Le Thanh Tuan - Deputy General Director and representatives from SCIC’s functional departments. On the partner side, there was the attendance of Ms. Chaerhan Chun - General Director of SK Vietnam, representative of the investment department of SK Group; state capital representative of Vinapharm and representative of Imexpharm JSC.

The overview of the meeting

The meeting began with the SCIC Chairman Mr. Nguyen Chi Thanh giving an overview of SCIC's production and business activities and the portfolio under management, among them pharmaceutical and medical firms and discussing the possibility of cooperation in the areas of project investment and divestment, in accordance with the production and financial requirements of each party. Specifically, Mr. Thanh detailed the vision to implement the Viet Nam Government's strategy of developing the national pharmaceutical industry until 2030: to develop Vietnam's pharmaceutical industry on par with advanced countries in the region, ensuring people’s access to pharmaceuticals at affordable costs; to improve research capacity and application of available technology to produce original brand-name drugs and drugs with newer, modern dosages, aiming to become a center for manufacturing, processing/ technology transferring of original brand-name drugs from the ASEAN region, striving to develop the domestic pharmaceutical industry to level 4 according to the WHO classification; to promote the production of medicinal raw materials; to optimize medication use. SCIC is therefore ready to coordinate with SK Group in information exchange, to take advantage of each party's existing capabilities and multi-industry production and business experience, to enable the possibility of investment cooperation on (i) producing pharmaceutical products, plasma or vaccines at international standards and suitable for the Vietnamese market and (ii) establishing a joint investment fund to proactively seek investment opportunities in key areas of Viet Nam’s economic sectors such as pharmaceuticals/ healthcare, green energy, high-tech, finance, banking, etc.

Discussion in the meeting

Having received feasible information from SCIC, Ms. Chaerhan Chun, General Director of SK Vietnam, expressed her sincere approvals to SCIC's leadership and shared the Group’s direction on cooperation in the future. Specifically, SK Group wants the two sides to increase information exchange and research the possibility of investing in high-quality pharmaceutical production projects that meet international standards as well as the needs of the Vietnamese market, and to produce and transfer vaccine production technology for the domestic market, with the aim of distributing vaccines internationally. Moreover, with the strength of diverse market shares and experience in many fields, SK Group is also willing to share information and explore the possibility of cooperating in the establishment of a joint investment fund in the near future.