VietNamNet Bridge – To everyone’s surprise, the number of the Vietnamese super rich people has been increasing rapidly in the economic crisis.

A Swiss bank, in its report released in September 2013, affirmed that 200 Vietnamese had been listed as super rich people, i.e. those who have the assets worth $30 million at least.

The 2014 Wealth Report just released by Knight Frank, showing that Vietnam is the country which has the sharpest increase in the number of super rich people - 166 percent (293 super rich). The second and third positions belong to Indonesia, 144 percent, and Ivory Coast, 116 percent.

The number of Vietnamese super rich is expected to increase by two folds in the next 10 years to 300.

HCM City tops the list of the cities which have the fastest growth in the number of super rich people. The city is expected to have 246 super rich after 10 years, while it had 90 super rich out of the population of 9 million in 2013.

However, only 20 out of the 200 super rich have shown up. They are the 20 richest stock millionaires who hold the volumes of stocks worth VND600 billion, or $30 million, and more.

The list of the 20 super rich includes Pham Nhat Vuong, the first Vietnamese dollar billionaire recognized by Forbes; Doan Nguyen Duc, President of Hoang Anh Gia Lai group, dubbed as “Rubber King”; the two big guys in the steel industry Tran Dinh Long and Le Phuoc Vu; the big banker and retailer Ha Van Tham; the “Catfish King” Duong Ngoc Minh and Truong Gia Binh, who leads the Vietnamese biggest technology group FPT.

This means that the other 90 percent of the super-rich remain “hidden.” The total assets of the hidden tycoons are believed to be higher than the listed super rich.

The values of the total assets of the hidden billionaires have not been verified. However, they are really very rich, and their names have been well known in the business community.

They include the new names such as Nguyen Dang Quang, the owner of Masan Group, the businessman who has returned to Vietnam from Eastern Europe; Ho Hung Anh, a banker, Le Viet Lam (SungGrou); Dang Khac Vy (VIB); Nguyen Thanh Hung (Sovico), Trinh Thanh Huy (real estate), Nguyen Canh Son (Eurowindow Holding), Ngo Chi Dung  (VPBank) ...

Meanwhile, the names of Nguyen Thi Nga (BRG, SeABank), Island King Dao Hong Tuyen or Vu Van Tien of Geleximco have been well known for the last many years.

Analysts have cited two outstanding factors when analyzing the list of the Vietnamese super rich. First, the number of Vietnamese super rich has been increasing rapidly in the economic crisis, which is a contrast to the decrease in big or newly emerging economies.

Second, a lot of Vietnamese businessmen do not want to appear before the public or expose their assets to the inquisitive eyes.

However, analysts said that the financial disclosure is inevitable as Vietnam’s economy is striving for a transparency. The number of enterprises listing their shares on the bourse has been increasing steadily despite the current difficulties. The number of rich people would also increase rapidly thanks to the financial disclosure principle, and their names would be recognized by the public.

Manh Ha