From War Babies to Billionaires: Vietnam's Wealthiest Women
From war babies to billionaires: Vietnam's wealthiest women
Female entrepreneurs own 25% of all private enterprises in Vietnam – Asia's fastest-growing economy after China. But those at the top have often overcome extraordinary hardship to get there. Abigail Haworth meets three of Vietnam's wealthiest women * Share1714 * * * inShare0 * -------------------------------------------------
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Abigail Haworth * -------------------------------------------------
The Observer, Sunday 24 March 2013 * -------------------------------------------------
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Leading the charge: Thuy Tien, president of Imex Pan Pacific and one of Vietnam's wealthiest women, at home in Ho Chi Minh City. Photograph: Nana Chen
"What's the first designer item you ever bought?" I ask 42-year-old Vietnamese tycoon Le Hong Thuy Tien as we cruise through Ho Chi Minh City in her beast-like black Bentley. It has come to this. I have been asking about her childhood during the Vietnam War (or the American War, as it's known here) for the past half an hour. She has politely refused to be drawn. Fawning questions about how filthy rich she is are all I have left.
"That's a great question!" she exclaims, her perfect eyebrows arching with delight. Sadly, it is only half great. The purchase was so many hundreds of Louis Vuitton tote bags, Bulgari watches and Chanel dresses ago that Thuy Tien can't remember the answer. She searches her memory in vain as motorcycles buzz past like flies outside the tinted windows.
Whatever the item was, we establish that she most likely bought it in Paris in the mid-1990s. Back then she was a flight attendant for the national carrier Vietnam Airlines. It was such a coveted job at a time when few Vietnamese could travel that she'd chosen it over
Female entrepreneurs own 25% of all private enterprises in Vietnam – Asia's fastest-growing economy after China. But those at the top have often overcome extraordinary hardship to get there. Abigail Haworth meets three of Vietnam's wealthiest women * Share1714 * * * inShare0 * -------------------------------------------------
* -------------------------------------------------
* -------------------------------------------------
* -------------------------------------------------
Abigail Haworth * -------------------------------------------------
The Observer, Sunday 24 March 2013 * -------------------------------------------------
Jump to comments (84)
Leading the charge: Thuy Tien, president of Imex Pan Pacific and one of Vietnam's wealthiest women, at home in Ho Chi Minh City. Photograph: Nana Chen
"What's the first designer item you ever bought?" I ask 42-year-old Vietnamese tycoon Le Hong Thuy Tien as we cruise through Ho Chi Minh City in her beast-like black Bentley. It has come to this. I have been asking about her childhood during the Vietnam War (or the American War, as it's known here) for the past half an hour. She has politely refused to be drawn. Fawning questions about how filthy rich she is are all I have left.
"That's a great question!" she exclaims, her perfect eyebrows arching with delight. Sadly, it is only half great. The purchase was so many hundreds of Louis Vuitton tote bags, Bulgari watches and Chanel dresses ago that Thuy Tien can't remember the answer. She searches her memory in vain as motorcycles buzz past like flies outside the tinted windows.
Whatever the item was, we establish that she most likely bought it in Paris in the mid-1990s. Back then she was a flight attendant for the national carrier Vietnam Airlines. It was such a coveted job at a time when few Vietnamese could travel that she'd chosen it over