Vietnam has produced a new class of billionaire entrepreneurs

THE ECONOMIC development of Vietnam now has a permanent monument in one of the world’s most prestigious seats of learning. After a $207m investment announced early this month by Sovico, a Vietnamese holding firm, the University of Oxford’s Linacre College (for graduate students) is set to be renamed after Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, its chairwoman.Thao College is a marker of a significant shift. As recently as 2012 Vietnam was a land without dollar billionaires. Today six are thought to have joined the club, according to , a magazine. A surging stockmarket means the list is likely to get longer. Whereas American and Chinese billionaires are in the cross-hairs from their respective governments, Vietnam’s wealthy entrepreneurs are the beneficiaries of the authorities’ ambition to foster internationally competitive national champions.