into the banking business when he assumed the position as the Chairman of the Thành Công banking cooperative and joining Sacombank's board of directors in 1993, where he was promoted as Chairman two years later. The expansion of the bank and its subsequent success formed much of Thành's individual and private family fortune as his family was ranked as one of the top ten wealthiest in Vietnam in 2008. 2014 was a major breakout year for Sacombank as it announced its merger with another bank by the name of Southern Bank, which is owned by Trầm Bê, a fellow Hoa banker and businessman of Teochew ancestry. Today, Thành's wife and children play a major role in conducting and operating the family's day-to-day business activities, which have since then expanded into real estate and brewing. Of the five women that make up Thành's immediate and extended family, possess an aggregate net worth of 2,178 billion đồng (136.12 million USD$). In 1970, it was estimated that while the Hoa made up only 5.3 percent of the total population, but reputedly controlled 70 to 80 percent of the entire commercial sector of Vietnam. In 1971, the Chinese controlled 2492 shops, equivalent to 41 percent of all the small and medium-sized shops operated in Saigon-Cholon's nine districts. In addition, the Hoa controlled the entire wholesale trade and 50 percent of the retail trade of South Vietnam before 1975. With regards to exports, Hoa businessmen established their own business networks with their compatriots in Mainland China and other Overseas Chinese business communities in Southeast Asia. Chinese-owned businesses controlled much of the economic activity in Saigon in South Vietnam where Hoa controlled 80 percent of South Vietnam's overall industry despite making up a tiny percentage of South Vietnam's population. Before the Fall of Saigon, the Chinese controlled 40.9 percent of the small-scale enterprises, 100 percent of the wholesale trade in South Vietnam, transitioning from smaller-scale retail outlets to larger wholesale enterprises. Chinese enterprises made up 45.6 percent of all the enterprises handling the import trade in the early 1970s. In addition 815 of the 966 direct and indirect importers in 1971 were controlled by the Chinese along with 300 Chinese shipping lines in Ho Chi Minh City alone as well as fifty large Chinese agents for agricultural, sea, and forestry products. By 1974, Chinese investment in the amusement and recreation sector was 20 percent and made