Vietnam’s economy may be slowly recovering but for the country’s rich, things are better than ever.
A recent report showed that the gap between rich and poor is growing rapidly. Swiss bank, UBS along with private-wealth intelligence firm Wealth-X found that Vietnam’s ultra-rich - those with a fortune of at least $30 million - have accumulated $20 billion in assets.
This growth is occurring in the shadow of a depressed national economy which will likely fail to reach its 5-year economic goals:
“At an economic conference in Hanoi this week, experts and government officials sounded pessimistic about the nation's financial prospects. Some were quoted as saying that Vietnam is lagging far behind other Southeast Asian nations on many economic fronts.”
Vietnamese economist Le Dang Doanh told Voice of America that the figures are unsurprising:
"Some people keep cashing in quickly despite the country's economic difficulties…thanks to their [official] contacts and their access to natural resources in the country," he said.
David Friedman, president of the Wealth-X, found that the majority of the wealth in Vietnam is based in family-owned companies:
"When you have a privately held business that is growing and run by family, the family has a passion for the industry and they know what they are doing." But also there is another reason. Maybe it's export driven, so it has nothing to do with the economy in Vietnam...it would explain why, even though the economy itself in Vietnam is not doing so well, businesses are growing. And if the businesses are growing, then the families that control them, their wealth, could be growing," Friedman said.
Sadly, it seems as though Vietnam is joining the growing list of countries with large income gaps.
