HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam has five billionaires with total assets of US$13.6 billion on the recently released Forbes 2019 World Billionaires list, including two newcomers.

The two newcomers are Hồ Hùng Anh, chairman of Việt Nam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Techcombank), and Nguyễn Đăng Quang, chairman of consumer goods and natural resources firm Masan Group.

With a net worth of $1.7 billion, Hùng Anh ranked 1349th in the Forbes billionaires list. Quang ranked 1717th with a net worth of $1.3 billion.

The two are business partners. Quang invested in Techcombank in 1993 and founded Masan Group with Hùng Anh in 2004.

The three returnees to the list were chairman of the diversified conglomerate Vingroup Phạm Nhật Vượng, new-age carrier Vietjet CEO and president Nguyễn Thị Phương Thảo and chairman of Thaco – the biggest car company in Việt Nam – Trần Bá Dương.

Vượng retained his top spot in Việt Nam with a fortune of $6.6 billion, up $2.3 billion from last year. Vượng has been named on the Forbes billionaire list for seven consecutive years, jumping from 974th in 2013 to 239th in 2019.

In Việt Nam, Thảo came the second with assets of $2.3 billion. This is the third year Thảo has been named, holding the 1,008th spot.

Dương ranked 349th, with net assets down $100 million from a year ago when he first joined the list.

Chairman of steel maker Hòa Phát Group Trần Đình Long dropped out of the list this year after his company’s stock price fell by more than 20 per cent.

Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of online retail site Amazon, topped the Forbes list for the second year in a row with an eye-popping $131 billion fortune, $19 billion more than a year ago.

Bezos was followed by Microsoft founder Bill Gates who had a fortune of $96.5 billion and Warren Buffett with $82.5 billion.

The list included 2,153 billionaires, 55 fewer than in 2018. Their total worth was $8.7 trillion, marking a decrease of $400 billion.

The billionaires club welcomed 195 newcomers worth $392 billion this year. 71 per cent were self-made, with their fortune made in at least 16 industries including real estate, technology, retail and fashion. However, the largest number of people since 2009 during the global financial crisis – 247 – dropped off the list.

Of the 33 countries that saw citizens added to the list, China was home to more new billionaires than anywhere else.

Another report by wealth research firm Wealth-X revealed that Việt Nam was among the world’s ten countries with the fastest millionaire population growth.

The country’s high-net-worth population – those with a net worth between $1 million and $30 million – was set to grow by 10.1 per cent each year in the 2018-23 period. This growth rate ranked fourth in the world after Nigeria’s 16.3 per cent, Egypt’s 12.5 per cent and Bangladesh’s 11.4 per cent.

In another report published in September 2018, Wealth-X said that Việt Nam was the third fastest growing country by the number of people with a net worth of over $30 million. The ultra-wealthy population increased by 12.7 percent in Việt Nam from 2012 to 2017, Wealth-X’s statistics showed. — VNS