Yesterday I just came back from a month-long business trip, covering 2 expos, 3 summits, 3 Momentum Works immersions, 6 flights and 7 cities. It is so good to be back home in Singapore (before the next journey).
In particular, in collaboration with the Department of Industry and Trade of Ho Chi Minh City Government, we completed the 2nd cohort of Momentum Works Vietnam Ecommerce & Retail immersion.
This largest immersion ever – 60 participants from 7 countries and territories: they work in various parts of the ecommerce ecosystem, from manufacturers to brands, from service providers to AI companies, and from retail chains to commercial real estate players.
In Ho Chi Minh city, we participated in the HCM City Export 2025, Vietnam Outstanding Export Products Fair, and hosted the Global e-commerce & digital trade summit there.
Over 4 days (27-30 Feb), We also visited companies including:
- MWG: Vietnam’s largest and most profitable multi-category retailer with more than 5,000 stores nation wide;
- Saigon Co-op Group: Vietnam’s leading consumer retail cooperative, with close to 900 stores and annual revenue of US$1.2 billion;
- Kido Group: Leading Food & Flavor company, with a well-established distribution network reaching over 570,000 retail points;
- WinCommerce: The retail arm of Masan Group that operates Vietnam’s largest grocery modern trade retail platform, with almost 4,000 stores and about US$2.4 billion annual revenue;
- Yến Đảo: a provider premium bird nest, that is increasingly in demand for export.
These were amongst the most productive meetings we ever had. The hunger for continued digitisation, omnichannel development and collaboration was evident.
Senior leaders of these companies not only shared with us about their companies, the current market landscape, but also their future plans and specific areas they were looking for collaboration.
Specifically, all these companies brought specific executives at the working and strategic level for collaboration opportunities.
“I have done more than half a year of work in these four days,” says a participant from a large Chinese branded retailer. “In the past, from reaching out to a potential partner to starting to work on something concrete, it would take at least four business trips over 4-5 months. Now I have four large companies I can work with, with contact established and follow up plans agreed within days.”
Special thanks to our friends at the Department of Industry and Trade, as well as all the receiving companies. Many of these meetings happened on the weekend, yet everyone showed up, full of energy, attention and dedication to make something work.
We also went back to camp for one night at Cần Giờ beach, where last year we filmed a podcast episode with COO and Head of Strategy of Vietnam’s largest MCN.
The morning breeze at Cần Giờ is very nice. You almost forget that this will be the site where a US$6 billion super port and US$9 billion coastal urban centre will be built.
Will share more insights about this and other trips we made recently, and keep you posted on our future immersions.
