The Spoils of Capitalism

In many countries, the publication of lists of ultra-rich citizens is an annual business ritual that stirs few emotions beyond pride and envy (depending on whether you made it onto the list or not). But in Vietnam, a communist country in the midst of a capitalist makeover, personal wealth remains a touchy subject. After online news site VNExpress recently produced the country's first-ever ranking of the 100 Richest People in Vietnam, several moguls complained. "I wish they would have asked us before publishing," groused Nguyen Duy Hung, CEO of a Ho Chi Minh City brokerage firm who was ranked the country's sixth-richest person with stock worth $58 million. A prominent law professor speculated that miffed tycoons might be able to sue for invasion of privacy. Even ordinary citizens were affronted. "A person's assets should be his private secret," wrote one VNExpress reader on the news outlet's website.

Yet that sentiment is not as common as it once was. As recently as five years ago, many wealthy Vietnamese officials took pains to disguise their net worth; they rode motorbikes to work and turned assets into gold bars that were hidden in their modest homes. "Society was not in favor of rich people," says Pham Chi Lan, an economist in Hanoi. "They did not dare expose their wealth." Today, BMWs and Mercedes are frequently seen on the streets of Hanoi, and there's a construction boom of luxury villas. The annual publication of a list of the country's richest people seems like just another capitalist milestone for a modernizing economy. After all, "in the world of business, people need to know where they stand," says Truong Dinh Anh, a division director for FPT Corp., a Hanoi-based telecommunications and Internet company.

Then again, Truong is hardly a disinterested observer. Not only did he rank 20th on the VNExpress list (his stock is worth $35 million), but FPT is the parent company of the news site that published the list. And who is Vietnam's richest person, according to VNExpress? Truong's cousin, FPT Corp. CEO Truong Gia Binh, pictured, whose shares in the tech conglomerate are worth nearly $200 million. Call it the Vietnamese Dream.