Hoang Tuan Anh

Vice President of the Vietnam Trade & Investment Promotion Club, Vietnam Young Entrepreneurs Association

"What I appreciate the most is that Australia decided to support Vietnam with an additional 3.6 million doses of Pfizer vaccine in 2021. At that time, vaccines were truly scarce and they were what Vietnam had been yearning for."

Both Australia and Vietnam are beloved homelands of Hoang Tuan Anh - the "father" of ATMs for rice, medical masks and oxygen. Tuan has no other dream than a long-lasting, prosperous future for both countries.

Hoang Tuan Anh studied and worked in Australia for 13 years (from 2000 to 2013) and holds Australian citizenship. He gradually reached his "prime" with an insulation sheet business and earned one million Australian dollars within just six months; and later hit “rock bottom” when the programme abruptly ended one year ahead of schedule, leaving him empty-handed within just five hours.

At that time, Tuan contemplated taking his own life but his mother was the one who pulled him back through a phone call from Vietnam. He regained his spirit and returned to Vietnam to take care of his elderly parents. Some time later, his mother was diagnosed with cancer. She passed away in 2020.

During the COVID-19 outbreak, Hoang Tuan Anh thought of his mother and decided to create rice ATMs. "Money can be earned at any time. At that moment, I didn't even know if I would survive the pandemic or not. But if my efforts could save someone’s life, then that would be much more important and sacred", Tuan said.

It was the knowledge he gained from his civil engineering studies in Australia that helped Hoang Tuan Anh design the rice ATM, followed by the medical mask ATM and oxygen ATM, which were featured by CNN and Reuters as a solution to assist the underprivileged during the pandemic. Tuan said that the rice ATMs, which he produced himself, distributed 3,000 tons of rice to those in need during the COVID-19 pandemic. This figure does not include the amount from the rice ATMs that other people produced based on his design.

Not only did Tuan come up with the idea of rice, mask, and oxygen dispensing machines, but he also noticed that many Australians in Vietnam were having difficulties accessing vaccines. He reached out to various stakeholders, associations, the local health department, hospitals and even the Australian Consulate General to organise vaccination events for 200 Australian businesses in Vietnam.

Now, Hoang Tuan Anh dedicates much of his time to connecting businesses between the two countries. Vietnamese businesses have land and labour resources, as well as an understanding of Vietnamese laws, while Australian businesses possess international experience. He believes that when businesses collaborate, they can go the distance on the path of development. Currently, Hoang Tuan Anh serves as the Vice President of the Vietnam Trade & Investment Promotion Club under the Vietnam Young Entrepreneurs Association.

Having studied and grown up in Australia, Tuan Anh thinks about sending his child to study abroad in Australia like he did before, for a different mindset. He also hopes that Australia will establish more primary and secondary schools in Vietnam, allowing Vietnamese students to access an education system like Australia’s. "I also hope that there will be more investment in the field of primary and secondary education. I’m also striving to foster connections regarding this aspect", Hoang Tuan Anh said.