Viet Nam now has four billionaires named in the annual Forbes list released on Tuesday. This is double the number in last year’s rankings.

Viet Nam’s four billionaires (from left to right): Tran Ba Duong, Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, Pham Nhat Vuong, Tran Dinh Long. (Photo anninhthudo.vn)

Besides Pham Nhat Vương and Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, Thaco chairman Tran Ba Duong and Hoa Phat chairman Tran Dinh Long feature in the Forbes 2018 list.

Vuong, owner of real estate conglomerate Vingroup and Viet Nam’s first billionaire, has been named for the 6^th consecutive time. He is currently the world’s 499^th richest person. Vuong also retained his position as Viet Nam’s richest man, with a net worth of 4.3 billion US$, a $1.9 billion increase compared to last year.

Thao, world’s 766^th richest person, is the chief executive officer of budget carrier VietJet Air. She has assets worth 3.1 billion US$. Vietjet Air operates more than 40% of the flights in Viet Nam. According to Forbes, besides investing in the airline, Thao also invests in HDBank and real estate, including three beach resorts.

Duong, 57, founded Thaco, the leading automotive manufacturer, assembler and distributor in Viet Nam, in 1997. He ranks world no.1,339 on the Forbeslist, with a net worth of 1.8 billion US$. Thaco has recently become a distributor of 2 luxury cars - BMW and MINI - in the Vietnamese market. By 2016, it had become the largest car company in Viet Nam, with a 32% share in the automobile market, according to Forbes.

Long, 57, ranks 1,756^th in the world in the list of richest persons, with a net worth of 1.3 billion US$. He founded the Hoa Phat steel corporation in 1992. Hoa Phat has had the largest market share for steel in the country. It achieved impressive business results in 2017, earning a profit of 8 trillion VND (351 million US$), the highest in its history, and raising the price of its shares 3 times. Long holds 25% of the group’s shares.

On Wednesday, Long told Viet Nam News that Hoa Phat had a positive outlook for future and expressed hope that the barriers protecting the local steel sector would be removed by 2020. As soon as the Hoa Phat Dung Quat Steel Complex becomes operational, the group’s construction steel capacity would reach four million tonnes per year, double the current amount.

“Hoa Phat will reach a new level of development, with a revenue of 100 trillion VND in the next 3 years,” Long said.

Topping the Forbes list this year is Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who became world’s first centi-billionaire with a net worth of 112 billion US$, up 39.2 billion US$ from 2017. Bill Gates, Microsoft’s co-founder and last year’s richest person, dropped to 2^nd place with a net worth of 90 billion US$.

This year saw an 18% increase in the number of billionaires around the world and set a record with a total of 2,208 billionaires, with total assets worth 9.1 trillion US$.

The US had the most billionaires at 585, followed by China at 476.

Viet Nam only had its first billionaire in terms of the US dollar in 2013.

(Source: VNS)