Vietnam has doubled its number of billionaires from last year to four in Forbes magazine's recently released 2018 list of world's richest people.
Pham Nhat Vuong, owner of real estate conglomerate Vingroup and Vietnam's first billionaire, enjoyed his sixth consecutive appearance on the list, being the world's 499th richest person this year. Vuong also retained his position as Vietnam's richest man with a net worth of US$4.3 billion, a US$1.9 billion increase compared to last year.
CEO of budget carrier VietJet Air Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao also had her second appearance on the list as the 766th richest person in the world. Vietnam's richest woman had an estimated net worth of US$3.1 billion, nearly three times her wealth when she made her debut appearance last year with US$1.2 billion.
![]() |
| From left to right: VietJet Air CEO Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, Vingroup chairman Pham Nhat Vuong, Hoa Phat chairman Tran Dinh Long, Thaco chairman Tran Ba Duong. Photo by VnExpress. |
Forbes magazine's list this year also sees the debut appearance of two other Vietnamese: Tran Ba Duong, chairman of Truong Hai Auto Corporation (Thaco) and Tran Dinh Long, chairman of Hoa Phat Corporation.
Duong, 57, was ranked 1339th in the list with a net worth of US$1.8 billion. He founded Thaco to sell cars in 1997 and the company later started assembling cars for foreign brands such as Kia, Mazda, Peugeot, as well as producing its own buses and trucks. Thaco became the biggest car company in Vietnam with a 32% share in the automobile market by 2016, according to Forbes.
Meanwhile Long, 57, was listed as world's 1756th richest person with a net worth of US$1.3 billion. He founded Hoa Phat as an equipment and parts distributor in Hanoi in 1992. The company is currently considered the biggest steel maker in Vietnam, providing the market with office equipment, steel pipes and construction steel.
Vietnam's fish sauce magnet Nguyen Dang Quang, who was named Vietnam's third billionaire in January by Bloomberg Billionaires Index, didn't make the Forbes list. Bloombeg estimated the chairman and founder of Masan Group's total assets at US$1.2 billion.
Topping the Forbes list this year was Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who became world's first centi-billionaire with a net worth of US$112 billion, up US$39.2 billion from 2017. Bill Gates, Microsoft's co-founder and last year's richest person, dropped to second place with a net worth of US$90 billion.
Gates is followed by Berkshire Hathaway chief Warren Buffett (US$84 billion), CEO and chairman of luxury goods empire LVMH Bernard Arnault (US$72 billion) and Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg (US$71 billion) rounded out the top five.
This is the 32nd year Forbes magazine has compiled its list of world's billionaires. This year's list sees a record 2,208 billionaires with a combined wealth of US$9.1 trillion, an 18% increase from last year.
The US still had the most billionaires with 585, followed by China with 476.
From a property-market perspective, Do Thi Thu Giang, National Director of Valuation and Advisory at Savills Vietnam, said the orientations under Resolution No. 21-NQ/TW could make the market more transparent and efficient, with property values increasingly tied to actual development and use potential.
Chinese carmakers are putting new pressure on prices and technology while testing Vietnam’s ability to retain more value.
Science and technology, innovation, digital transformation and AI must be translated into higher productivity rather than pursued as ends in themselves. At the same time, people should be placed at the centre of development, not merely viewed as a resource but as the ultimate objective of development policies.
US retail giant Target is seeking Vietnamese suppliers of household goods, home textiles, children’s products, personal care and beauty products, with a focus on companies capable of manufacturing and developing products that meet requirements on quality, design and supply chain management.
The annual event, which will be held on August 18-19, 2026, at the ICE International Exhibition Centre, 91 Tran Hung Dao Street, Hanoi, is expected to attract around 324 delegates and feature 21 booths representing credit institutions, payment intermediary service providers, and technology companies.
Vietnam should give priority to areas where it has potential to build strengths, particularly manufacturing and packaging.
Vietnam has built a solid semiconductor and electronics industry before joining ITSI, attracting major US semiconductor companies. Intel Products Vietnam is one of Intel's largest assembly and testing facilities worldwide, while chip design companies such as Synopsys, Cadence, Marvell and Qualcomm have established engineering and research centres in the Southeast Asian country.
According to the Ministry of Construction, Vietnam has around 2,500 old apartment blocks and collective housing complexes built before 1994, covering about 3 million square metres of floor space, mainly in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Of these, around 196 have been classified as severely deteriorated and unsafe.
Durian exports reached nearly 1.1 billion USD in the first six months of 2026, up 32% year-on-year. The industry's strongest export season, however, is still ahead.
The country's agro-forestry-aquatic product exports reached nearly 42.8 billion USD in the January–July period, up 7.5% year-on-year and equivalent to almost 60% of the annual target of 74 billion USD.
During the first seven months of 2026, Vietnam attracted more than 38 billion USD in registered FDI, up nearly 58% year-on-year. More importantly, the increase was driven by large-scale, high-tech projects rather than a surge in the number of new investments, signalling a significant improvement in the quality of capital inflows.
Manufacturing and engineering posted the strongest recruitment growth, with hiring demand surging 70% year-on-year, driven by production expansion, supply chain restructuring and sustained investment inflows in high-tech manufacturing.
Vietnam's total import-export turnover reached 659.58 billion USD in the first seven months of 2026, up 28.1% year-on-year.
The projects in Phu Quoc have been implemented under tight deadlines. Since May 2025, the Prime Minister has directed preparations for APEC 2027, including accelerated infrastructure development on the special zone. An Giang province and investors have subsequently launched a number of major projects involving complex technical requirements and demanding construction schedules.
The NSO also reported that realised FDI reached an estimated 15.2 billion USD during the January-July period, an increase of 11.8% from a year earlier and the highest seven-month disbursement recorded over the past five years.
Household deposits at banks reached a new high of 10.8 quadrillion VND (414 billion USD) at the end of May, up more than 108 trillion VND from April and increasing by 4.76% from the beginning of the year, equivalent to nearly 492 trillion VND.
The plan seeks to develop a balanced and modern financial market that is closely integrated with regional and global markets, strengthens the mobilisation and allocation of domestic and foreign capital, and enhances the market’s role as a key provider of medium- and long-term capital for the economy and as a major driver of sustained high economic growth.
Under the province's master plan for 2021–2030 with a vision to 2050, An Giang will prioritise investment in five strategic sectors: strategic infrastructure; processing industries and clean energy; trade, services, logistics and border-gate economy; high-quality tourism; and high-tech agriculture, ecological development and the circular economy.
According to the VCCI, these measures are not only necessary for managing potential risks arising from US trade actions but also crucial to enhancing competitiveness and meeting growing international expectations on compliance, product origin, quality and transparency.
Businesses say the biggest obstacle to reducing emissions and transforming production models remains the lack of financial resources needed to upgrade technologies, modernise production lines and build governance systems that comply with global sustainability standards.