Throughout our conversation about starting a business and awarding scholarships to HUST students, Nguyen Manh Cuong, General Director of Toan Phuong Chemical Joint Stock Company, kept saying: "My company is a very modest one. I am only giving the students a small token of my heart!" Perhaps it is precisely because he set out early with great ambition, together with the spirit of sharing, the sense of responsibility and the integrity of a HUST person, that alumnus Manh Cuong now has the "modest company" and the "small heart" he claims - along with a credo: "Balance the art of division to walk a long road together"!
HUST teachers who give their all for their students
"I have always liked numbers, so Economics would have suited me. But fate led me to Chemistry: I became a K46 student at Hanoi University of Science and Technology, have stayed with Chemistry ever since, and still get to work on what I love, which has everything to do with economics!" - that is how Cuong opens his story.
- When you were at Hanoi University of Science and Technology, students only chose their major after the first year. So how did you end up in Chemistry?
* Blame the World Cup! (Laughs.) In my day the University used the results of the first two semesters to assign majors. I worked hard in the first semester and my marks were good. I had put Electronics and Telecommunications as my first choice and was sure I would get in. Then the end of the second semester fell right on the 2002 World Cup, so I sank into football and my final exams went into free fall. My total over the two semesters came up 0.01 points short of my first choice. Luckily I had put the Faculty of Chemistry as my second choice, and so I ended up in Electrochemistry. I am an optimist by nature and never stay downcast for long, so even in a fallback choice I gave it everything I had. I met wonderful teachers and friends, and fell in love with Chemistry without even noticing!
- Do you still remember the impression your HUST teachers made on you back then?
* In my Electrochemistry department, every teacher gave their all for the students. I remember Ms Pham Thi Hanh regularly phoning students to remind them to focus on their studies so they could find good jobs after graduation. She even lent money to students from poor families so they could pay their tuition. Mr Le Duc Tri always took great care in leading students on factory internships. The Head of Department, Mr Tran Trung, was very strict but cared deeply for his students. Above all there was my class advisor, Mr Dang Trung Dung, who shaped a mischievous student like me both in how I approached learning and in how I conduct myself in life.
Mr Dung had only just graduated when he was put in charge of my class - a class with a dozen or so boys as mischievous as imps. He was just a few years older than us, so we were close, fond of him and deeply attached. In class he taught with dedication and patience; I never once saw him lose his temper. Off duty he played football fiercely, drank beer with the whole class to celebrate after a match, went home with students to visit their families, and teacher and students told one another stories about life...
Sometimes I wondered how a man only a few years older than me could be so composed and mature, and I took him as the example I wanted to live up to.
HUST people: warm, sincere and in love with engineering
- You say you were lucky to work in the very field you studied, and to do work involving numbers as you had always wanted. How did your job search go?
* After graduating I was lucky enough to join an engineering company working in electrochemistry. Its director was a senior HUST Chemistry alumnus from K24, Mr Tran Binh An. He was the mentor who brought me into the trade and taught me a great deal about business in practice. After five years with him I asked to strike out on my own, and the two of us became close business partners instead.
We HUST people are all warm, sincere and in love with engineering! Mr An and I often go back to HUST together to present sponsorships and scholarships to students. The bonds among HUST alumni are very strong; earlier generations help the ones that follow. My company employs many HUST alumni who have stayed with us from the day they graduated until now. We also take third- and fourth-year Electrochemistry students on internships.
- In giving scholarships to HUST students, what do you personally hope for from the recipients?
* I want to create connections and pass on motivation to students. My company is only a small one. But I do not think I can wait until it becomes a corporation, or until I am immensely rich, before coming back to the University. With the affection I have and with what I have now, I want to connect with the teachers and the students right away.
In the past we could only support small scholarships. In 2024 we set up a HUST alumni community group; everyone joined in to contribute, and many small gusts made a storm, so we could offer scholarships of greater value. That has also built exchange and connection within the HUST alumni community, joining hands to give to the generations that follow.
I will always remember giving a scholarship to a female student in difficult circumstances whose father died of cancer while she was at university. She showed tremendous resilience and did well in her studies despite the hardship. Our scholarship eased part of that burden at the time. After graduating she came to work at my company, and she is still with us today.
I take to heart something an older friend once told me: "Life is a series of additions, subtractions, multiplications and divisions; you have to weigh them so that life stays in balance and never tips or leans to one side. Of them all, division is the hardest."
Division here can be understood as sharing the cake, sharing the results, sharing the hardships, sharing the work. Only then can you walk a long road together.
- Thank you very much for this conversation!
 "ARE YOU SHORT OF CAPITAL FOR YOUR START-UP?" "As long as I live I will never forget the question my HUST teacher, Assoc. Prof. Dang Trung Dung, asked me when I started my business in 2012. He had just returned from further study in Korea, and the two of us met for coffee. He told me he had managed to set aside 400 million VND during those years abroad, and that he would lend it to me if I needed it. Hearing him say that, I was so moved I could have cried! I really did need capital at the time: I was only just starting out, had not built up much, and no amount of money was ever enough. In truth I needed the whole 400 million, but I worried that if I borrowed it all and the business ran into trouble, it would affect his life and his family. So I borrowed only 200 million from him, for one year. Luckily the business went well and I repaid him after a year. He lent me money worth 200 million; the affection he showed me is priceless." Nguyen Manh Cuong, General Director of Toan Phuong Chemical and HUST alumnus |
