Five of Vietnam’s most influential businesspeople

Together with Pham Nhat Vuong, four other businesspeople who head powerful conglomerates in important business fields — real estate, retail, automobiles, building materials, aviation and banking — are expected to make influential contributions to the Vietnam economy in the future, according to Bizlive.

All the businesspeople have a high level of education and solid family background.

1. Pham Nhat Vuong, 1968, graduated from a university in the former Soviet Union in geological economics, and started his business in Ukraine with Mivina instant noodles and Technocom.

His wife, Pham Thu Huong, has been a good partner since then (and now they have three children). He later moved investment and business to Vietnam.

Vingroup, where Vuong is president, is a privately owned conglomerate with the highest capitalization value in the stock market ($5.8 billion). Established as a real estate group,  Vingroup has recently poured money into many business fields, including retail, e-commerce, agriculture, education, healthcare, infrastructure and automobiles.

Foreign media predict that Vuong is likely to be the first Vietnamese with more than $10 billion and the richest in SE Asia within several years.

2. Tran Ba Duong, 1960, graduated from the HCMC University of Science & Technology in 1983. He is the founder of Thaco, an automobile manufacturer, which was established in 1997. Since 2013, Duong has been acting as CEO of Dai Quang Minh Real Estate.

Thaco is now the leading Vietnamese automobile company which holds 41.5 percent of  market share. The manufacturer reported post-tax profit of VND8 trillion in 2016. Dai Quang Minh is an investor of huge property projects, including Sala in Thu Thiem, HCMC.

3. Tran Dinh Long, 1961, graduate from the Hanoi Economics University, is the founder of Hoa Phat Group, the leading Vietnamese steel manufacturer. Though Hoa Phat also invests in real estate projects, its profits mostly come from steel manufacturing. Its post-tax profit in 2016 was reported at VND6.6 trillion

4. Nguyen Dang Quang, 1963, has a doctorate in physics. Like Vuong, Quang started his business by making instant noodles in Russia.

Masan Group, where he is president, operates in the food and mining sectors. Masan holds the controlling stake in Vinacafe and owns well-known brands such as Chinsu, Omachi, Nam Ngu, Tam Thai Tu and Vinh Hao. One report found that 98 percent of Vietnamese families use at least one Masan product.

5. Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, 1970, doctorate of economics, started her business in Russia. The first Vietnamese female billionaire has been managing Vietjet since 2007.

Though Vietjet provided its first commercial flight in 2011, it now competes on par with the national flag air carrier Vietnam Airlines.

Thao is also a banker, and deputy chair of HD Bank.

Kim Chi / vietnamnet