Reflections on the Creation of the Song “March of the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam”

By then, it was the middle of 1996, and all preparations for the 40th anniversary celebration of the Vietnam Bank for Investment and Development (BIDV) on April 26, 1997, had been completed by the Party Committee, the Board of Directors, and the Executive Board. Tasks such as requesting the President to award medals, planning guest lists, gifts, venues, reports, and other specific directives had been assigned to individual leaders and departments at the headquarters. Amid this overwhelming workload, organizing an artistic program presented its own complex challenges. The leadership had many opinions, and the labor union also proposed numerous ideas. The staff members were no different—some suggested one approach, others another. However, a concrete plan was needed to provide direction and ensure execution.

The person who sparked the idea for the BIDV March

After reviewing the various opinions, Mr. Nguyen Van Doan, who was then Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam, convened a joint meeting to unify the policy, plan, and implementation measures for this task to ensure it was completed on time. In essence, the leadership’s policy on this matter was to organize a vibrant, grand, professional, and distinctly BIDV-themed cultural performance program to be held before the opening ceremony. To carry out this policy, the leadership assigned the Information and Public Relations Department and the BIDV Labor Union to serve as the coordinating units for the organization and execution. The Labor Union launched a creative competition for poetry and songs to celebrate the traditions, work, and people who have contributed to building the industry and to the nation’s economic development…The Information and Publicity Department, meanwhile, arranged for several renowned professional composers, such as Hong Dang, Thuan Yen, and Tan Huyen, to conduct field research and visit locations to compose songs about the Vietnam Bank for Investment and Development.

Despite the overwhelming workload of an entire system with heavy responsibilities, Mr. Doan still made an effort to arrange his schedule to oversee and participate in these activities, especially during off-hours. Although he knows nothing about music, he has a deep passion for this artistic field. His passion stems from his love for his profession, his love for people, and his love for the Vietnam Development Bank, to which he has dedicated his entire life. Through cultural activities, he also aims to convey his love to everyone through poems and songs, fostering a shared sense of pride and deeper affection for the industry, and encouraging everyone to strive harder for the survival and growth of the Vietnam Bank for Investment and Development.

Having spent many years working closely with him both professionally and personally, I have come to understand him quite well. I trust and admire his talent and integrity, and I highly value what he has done for the Vietnam Bank for Investment and Development, especially during what could be described as the most challenging years for our entire system. The hardships, struggles, and even the sacrifices and endurance of a captain steering the ship through storms, as well as the happiness and glory when the seas are calm and the winds are favorable, with the ship gliding smoothly forward—through it all, you remain yourself, simply an ordinary person. He simply wants to express all those feelings—those burning emotions from the depths of his heart—through verses, through words that are profound, heartfelt, down-to-earth, passionate, direct, and as transparent as he is.

He told me: “I have one flaw—I don’t know music—but I’ll write, I’ll compose poetry about our bank for the composers to reference and set to music, because composers don’t really understand much about our bank’s operations. They have the technique; we have the lyrics—only then will the song truly belong to our bank.” He wrote a lot of poetry, though it wasn’t poetry in the traditional sense—it didn’t follow any rules—but he just wrote, writing whatever was settling within him, writing what he loved, what he wanted to convey… so none of his poems were ever published, yet they were music, tender melodies; those in the industry, when they heard them, felt as if they were right there in the lyrics, lost in thought, remembering them forever, just like the lyrics of “Money and Hearts,” “Singing About You, the Bank Girl,” “There’s a Bank Like That,” and “Like a Bee Seeking Flowers for Honey,” which composer Thuận Yến set to music. Some lyrics in musical works by composers Hong Đăng and Tân Huyền also draw on his poetic ideas to write about the Vietnam Bank for Investment and Development.

But his greatest concern in this endeavor is how to create a song he calls an “Industry Anthem.” He has also discussed this idea with high-caliber professional composers such as Thuận Yến, Hong Đăng, Tân Huyền, and Phan Huấn, as well as professional songwriters currently working within the Vietnam Bank for Investment and Development system, such as Nguyen Xuân Sinh and Vu Thạch Hùng… hoping that these composers would explore the subject to write this song for the bank. Back when we celebrated the 35th anniversary of our industry, I also wrote a song titled “Rest Assured, Mother,” but completing it was quite a struggle. I suppose you didn’t expect me to be able to write a “theme song” like that, so you didn’t ask me to do it.

Actually, I’m not very musically inclined; I never had any formal training, just picked up a few basics here and there. I never even imagined I could write a song like this. But I do love this bank of mine. I’ve been with it since the day it was still called the Construction Bank. Because I belong to the bank, and the bank belongs to me. The bank is my love and my sorrow, my successes and my failures. The bank’s founding date coincides with my birthday. The bank is all of my youth, love, happiness, future, and aspirations; it is a source of emotion that is always abundant and intense within me. I really want to do something to express my feelings for it, so besides working hard, I don’t know what else I should do for it?

Then, one Sunday in August or September 1996, I took advantage of my day off to visit Mr. Doan—both to see him and to ask for his advice on something, since it was hard to meet him during office hours, and even if we did, we couldn’t talk much. Everyone at my bank knew he was very open—he spoke his mind and never held anything back. What we liked most about him was his down-to-earth nature; he wasn’t formal or discriminatory, so visiting his home was always very comfortable. After finishing our business, we chatted about all sorts of things until I asked to leave. He told me to stay a little longer—I thought it was something else, but it turned out he said: “I’ll sing you a line I want to include in the ‘industry anthem’ so you can hear if it works.” Oh my goodness, so he’d been mulling it over, nurturing the idea, and really hoping to create a song specifically for the Vietnam Investment and Development Bank. I was more than happy to listen to him sing. After hearing him sing, I laughed so hard I cried. Mrs. Phuc, Mr. Doan’s wife, called out from inside the house: “Don’t listen to him sing—he’s a bit of a nutcase.” I said, “I bet you love his ‘crazy’ side the most, don’t you? It’s nothing—the phrase he sang for me was ‘Our investment in the historical journey’ set to the melody of the song ‘Marching Far.’ Try singing that phrase to the ‘Marching Far’ tune and see.” I exclaimed: “Oh, Mr. Doan, Mr. Doan, you’re so talented, yet why are you being so stubborn about this? That’s against the rules—it’s like distorting someone else’s song. You can’t do that.”

It was truly a comical story, but it seemed to stir something in me, urging me to think, to develop that line set to the melody of “Marching Far” into a song that you, I, and the generations of people who have worked, are working, and will work at the Vietnam Investment and Development Bank could sing and accept. That’s all I’ll say, but I’m powerless to act—it’s just too hard. I’ve tried talking to some composers about my idea, but they’re indifferent, paying no attention at all. I was deeply frustrated because they looked down on me so much, and they were just full of themselves. But I still thought, I thought I had to write a song about our bank; I had to give it a try, I had to try my best. But I believed I could do it because I had a unique understanding of my bank that many others—especially musicians, even professionals—could never have.

Then one day—actually, it was an entire night on a Sunday evening—I went to visit a sick friend at Xanh-Pôn Hospital in Hanoi. I’m sure everyone knows that in a hospital, especially at night, it’s truly sad; the scenes of life here hold no joy, only worries and pain. Sitting bored inside, feeling restless, I went out for a walk in the hospital garden, my heart heavy with a vague sadness, my thoughts wandering aimlessly.

I suddenly thought of my bank, and the song “Our investments mark the milestones of history” echoed somewhere in my mind. Ah! That’s right—my Investment and Development Bank is nearly 40 years old. The forty years I’ve spent alongside it have been a historic journey filled with glory, yet also marked by many storms and hardships. Over the past forty years, its people and organization have continuously grown stronger, contributing their labor, resources, and talents to the nation. The name “Bank for Investment and Development” has been inextricably linked to an entire era of reform and development, as well as to the entire Vietnamese banking system and the growth of the nation’s economy…

I keep thinking, my thoughts stretching endlessly from distant memories back to the present. The lyrics that Mr. Doan sang to me inspired me to write the opening line of the song as: “The Investment Bank’s historical journeys,” rather than “Our investment’s historical journeys.” It was too dark; I hadn’t brought any paper, so I had to write on the palm of my hand under the dim light of a high-pressure lamp shining from afar through the tree branches. What comes next? I wondered what had made our bank successful? It had to be something core, something traditional. That’s it—it’s the spirit of unity, the tradition of unity. A new melody took shape as the lyrics were written onto my palm: “The tradition of unity contributes to building the nation,” followed by the next line: “Forty years of reform and innovation.”

Is that enough? I silently asked myself. What’s missing here? My bank has been with me through many generations; new generations are continuing the work of their forebears. So they must follow in their fathers’ and elders’ footsteps to further glorify the tradition of the Vietnam Investment and Development Bank! I exclaimed: “Following in the footsteps of our fathers and brothers to bring glory to the tradition of the Investment Bank,” and that became the closing line of the song. I’m musically untrained, so I wrote the lyrics as they came to me and composed the music as I went along. I hummed softly to a melody I would later transcribe into musical notes. I felt a mix of joy, confidence, and pride as I continued to craft the second verse of the song. My left palm was covered in scribbles and crossed-out lines, but I was satisfied and named the song the title I was most fond of: “The March of the Vietnam Investment and Development Bank” as dawn was breaking. I hurried back to the hospital room where my friend was lying; I didn’t know if anything had happened—I was so thoughtless, my friend.

The next morning, Monday, at the start of the workday, I stopped by Mr. Doan’s office. I saw him standing behind his desk looking at something, so I greeted him and told him I’d written a song about our bank and wanted to sing it for him, since the song was inspired by his idea. He replied right away: “Here, I’ve just received a few songs from some composers. I don’t know much about the music, but the lyrics—well, they’re not quite right yet.” I told him: “You know me—my musical knowledge is pretty limited, but I’ll just sing it for you to see if it works.”

To be honest, at that time I hadn’t finished composing the music yet; I was just singing the lyrics set to the melody I intended to write for Mr. Doan. Before singing for Mr. Doan, I had already sung it over the phone for Mr. Vu Thach Hung to hear, and he praised it highly, so when I sang for Mr. Doan, I felt quite confident. After hearing me sing, Mr. Doan was surprised and found it very enjoyable. He told me, “I think it’s good; you’re quite talented.” I felt my face flush, and I was speechless. I felt as though I had created something truly beautiful for our bank. That day was both the start of the week and the day the Board of Directors meeting had been scheduled. Mr. Doan told me to go down and inform the Office to postpone the meeting and instead convene the leadership, the Party Committee, the Trade Union Executive Committee, the Youth League Executive Committee, and any comrades present at the office to offer their input on this song, since it was already late in 1996. Everyone listened to me sing, nodded in approval, supported the idea, and praised the song, saying it was good, very memorable, both distinctive and highly generalizable—truly representative of the Investment and Development Bank—with a strong and captivating melody. Among them, Mr. Le Xuân Đạm suggested changing the first line of the second verse to: “The Investment Bank opens new projects” instead of repeating “The Investment Bank’s historical milestones” as in the first verse. Later, after the music composition was completed, Mr. Nguyen Xuân Sinh helped enhance the pronunciation of the word “thống” to add more emphasis to the song.

Immediately after this “joint” meeting, Mr. Doan called over two women—Hai Long and Thu Ha from the International Relations Department—to translate the lyrics into English right away. It’s worth noting that translating a song into a foreign language isn’t an easy task; it requires specific techniques, but Mr. Doan told the two women to just translate it informally, like a simple interpretation. After the translation was finished, a test run sounded smooth and acceptable. Mr. Nguyen Xuan Sinh was assigned, along with me, to lead the cultural arts team of the trade union and the youth league in immediate rehearsals to be ready for the performance at the event welcoming foreign clients during Christmas 1996.

Hope for a BIDV March in a New Era

“The March of the Vietnam Bank for Investment and Development” was born in this way; it emerged not only from the emotions of Mr. Doan and myself, but from all the people who have lived and worked for the Vietnam Bank for Investment and Development—those who have been deeply connected to it and love it dearly. They are the true authors of it; everyone sings it because it embodies them, representing the burning aspiration for the prosperity and happiness of past, present, and future generations. I merely helped everyone capture it.

“The March of the Vietnam Investment and Development Bank” also needs to be renewed. We must not only be united but also possess resolve, courage, wisdom, and talent. We must not only have new projects but also a wide range of products and services befitting a leading commercial bank both domestically and regionally. We are not merely a commercial bank but must become a powerful financial conglomerate operated on the foundation of advanced, modern technology in the future. And so on and so forth.

A new phase has begun; a new chapter of our story will continue to unfold, building upon and elevating the legacy of the “March of the Vietnam Investment and Development Bank” to new heights—more fully, more grandly, and more magnificently.

Be confident and keep striving, dear children of the Vietnam Investment and Development Bank, especially you young people. We believe in you.

Hanoi, April 2007