ALL HIS (PRIME MINISTER DZUNG'S) CHILDREN

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 HO CHI MINH CITY 001492

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C O R R E C T E D C O P Y (MISSING TEXT)

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E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/25/2016
TAGS: PINR ECON EFIN PGOV PREL VM
SUBJECT: ALL HIS (PRIME MINISTER DZUNG'S) CHILDREN

REF: A. SILBERSTEIN - INR/B EMAILS OF DECEMBER 16 AND


B. PREVIOUS; B) HCMC 1404

HO CHI MIN 00001492 001.3 OF 002


Classified By: Consul General Seth Winnick for reasons 1.5
b/d.


1. (S/NF) Summary and Introduction: ConGen has been seeking
additional information on the biographies of the three
children of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dzung. We understand
that Dzung, in his meeting with the President during the
APEC Leaders' Summit, sought to deflect or downplay the
ties of his children to the United States. Per ref B,
according to a well-placed HCMC contact, Prime Minister
Dzung was caught off guard by President Bush's query to him
about the educational and other links of his adult children
to the United States. Biodata and information on the
activities of the families of high-ranking officials is
considered very sensitive in Vietnam. The following
information on the three children of Nguyen Tan Dzung was
gleaned from conversations with a number of our HCMC
contacts as well as with Nguyen Thanh Phuong, Dzung's
daughter, who came into the Consulate for a visa interview
on December 19. End Summary and Introduction.

All His Children
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2. (S/NF) Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dzung has three
children: eldest son Nguyen Thanh Nghi, born in 1977,
daughter Nguyen Thanh Phuong, born March 20, 1980, and
second son Nguyen Minh Triet, born in 1990. HCMC contacts
say that Nghi received his PhD in structural engineering
from George Washington University. He has since returned
to and is teaching at the Construction Faculty of the HCMC
University of Architecture, where he also received his BA.


3. (S/NF) Nghi met his wife -- a Vietnamese national from
Hanoi (NFI) -- while studying at GW. They were married
after their return from the United States. Some HCMC
contacts report that Nghi is likely to receive a position
in one of the government's state-owned construction
corporations in HCMC. Nghi is also connected to a growing
private Vietnamese construction company, Bitexco, which is
building a number of high-rise buildings in Hanoi and
HCMC. Bitexco also has interests in bottled water,
textiles and hydropower. According to one HCMC contact, in
2001 and 2002 Nghi was a "public relations manager" and
"project manager" for Bitexco.


4. (S/NF) Nguyen Thanh Phuong was born in Kien Giang
province in the Mekong Delta -- PM Dzung's home province.
She currently resides in downtown HCMC. Phuong went to
primary and secondary school in Kien Giang until
transferring to the prestigious Marie Curie High School in
HCMC in 1995. She then went to the National Economics
University in Hanoi, and graduated with a BA in finance in

2001. From 2002 to 2004, she worked towards her MBA at the
International University in Geneva, in a program affiliated
with Michigan State University. Phuong's only travel to
the United States was for two weeks in late 2004 to receive
her diploma from MSU.


5. (S/NF) Phuong began working part-time while in Hanoi.
She worked in the Stock Trading Department of Bao Viet
Securities Company -- an arm of the state-owned insurance
corporation -- from January to August 2000. She then
worked for the State Securities Commission from October
2000 to August 2001. After she returned to Vietnam from
Switzerland, she joined the Swiss cement producer, Holcim,
in HCMC as Deputy Finance Director. In January 2006,
Phuong left Holcim to become Investment Director of Vietnam
Holding Asset Mangement in HCMC, a USD 112 million Swiss-
linked investment fund. In November 2006, she became
Chairperson of the Viet Capital Fund Management (VCFM)
joint stock company. In early 2007, Phuong plans to travel
to the U.S. to pitch the VCFM to major New York investment
banks.


6. (C) VCFM was founded in August 2006 with a chartered
capital of VND 8 billion (USD 50 million) as an operational
arm of the Viet Capital Fund to manage companies controlled
by the fund. The Viet Capital Fund was established by
wealthy Vietnamese entrepreneurs, largely based in HCMC.
It runs two portfolios, a domestic Vietnamese fund and an
off-shore fund. Its chairman is Huynh Van Thien, the CEO
and founder of Vietnam Lubricants and Chemicals joint stock
corporation (VILUBE) and owner of Capital Land, a real
estate development company.

HO CHI MIN 00001492 002.3 OF 002




7. (S/NF) Our conversation with Phuong supported reporting
from another HCMC source that she is dating a Vietnamese
American who also works in Vietnam's growing financial
sector. Phuong confirmed that her younger brother Triet is
in high school in England and plans to study media at the
university level there.


8. (S/NF) Comment: Phuong is the spitting image of her
father, and also appears to be the most dynamic and
accomplished of the Prime Minister's three children. In
her conversation with us she was open, inquisitive and
engaging. There is no doubt that she is talented.
However, her rapid advance, and the many doors that opened
for her and her two brothers are indicative of how the
Vietnamese political elite ensures that their progeny are
well placed educationally, politically and economically.
What is different about Phuong's story is that, unlike
other offspring of senior Party members who obtain
sinecures in state-owned corporations, Phuong's career path
focused on the private sector. Clearly it makes good
political sense to hire the Prime Minister's daughter to
manage an investment fund, especially if that fund is
seeking to focus on investment in government-controlled
sectors such as oil and gas, banking and information
technology. End Comment.
WINNICK