Two dollar billionaires: does Vietnam need more?

Pham Chi Lan, a renowned economist

Forbes has officially recognized two Vietnamese dollar billionaires – Pham Nhat Vuong, president of Vingroup, and Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, CEO of Vietjet Air.

Compared with other regional countries, the number is small. Singapore has 21 billionaires, Thailand and Indonesia have 20 each, while the Philippines have 14 and Malaysia 12.

According to the World Bank, the GDP of these countries is 1.5-2 times higher than Vietnam’s. Their GDP per capita, except Singapore, which is 25 times higher, is just 1.5-5 times higher than Vietnam’s, but the number of billionaires is by far higher than Vietnam’s.

In South East Asia, Vietnam is just above Brunei, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar in the number of billionaires as the countries, which have none.

Nguyen Lan Anh, a representative of Forbes Vietnam, commented that the number of Vietnamese billionaires is low compared with that of other regional countries, but it, to some extent, shows the development of the private economic sector in recent years.

In fact, many people believe that Vietnam has more than two dollar billionaires. 

In 2014, Wealth-X and UBS reported that Vietnam had 210 individuals belonging to the world’s super-rich class with total assets of US$20 billion. These included two dollar billionaires with the total assets of US$3 billion.

Meanwhile, the most updated report of Knight Frank showed that more than 200 Vietnamese nationals have assets of US$30 million and more, an increase of 32 individuals compared with 2015 and by 50 compared with 2014.

The number of super-rich men increased sharply, by 3.2 times within 10 years, from 2006 to 2016, listing Vietnam as the country with the sharpest increase in the number of super rich.

The institution predicted that Vietnam would have 540 super rich men by 2060 and 38,600 millionaires.

Anh agrees that the number of Vietnamese dollar millionaires would be higher if the information is more transparent. 

Many individuals reportedly have big assets, but it is difficult to value the assets. 

Pham Chi Lan, a renowned economist, commented that the international recognition of more billionaires showed the certain development of the national economy.

Lan highly appreciates the achievements gained by Vietjet. 

"The way Vietjet joined the aviation sector is very impressive. It not only has mad a great contribution to development, but also has changed the way the industry has developed,” she said.

Lan said she also appreciates that Vingroup has invested in many other non-property business fields.