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Author Laura Santini related the life of Nguyen Thi Mai Thanh from Ho Chi Minh City, who had worked as a volunteer medic in the south, contracted malaria and dodged US attacks before going to the north and then studying abroad.
Returning to Viet Nam, Ms. Mai Thanh took a job at the Refrigeration & Electrical Engineering Corp (REE) based in Ho Chi Minh City, and quickly moved up the ranks to become the leader.
"Today, life has improved markedly for the 54-year-old Ms. Mai Thanh," the July 19 edition said. As chairwoman and chief executive of REE Corp., a home-appliance, construction and real-estate company, she is one of Viet Nam's most successful and wealthiest businesswomen. She is said to be the ninth richest person in Viet Nam with a net worth of around 55 million USD.
According to the author, such success stories for women are not uncommon at the pinnacle of Viet Nam's business world.
In all, companies that represent more than 30 percent of the country's stock-market capitalisation have a woman at the helm. In the US, fewer than 2 percent of fortune 500 companies are run by women. Meanwhile in the Republic of Korea and Japan, women are often discouraged from pursuing careers and seldom break into upper-echelon corporate positions, the paper said.
