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Meet the refugee eyeing a $1b float

Meet the refugee eyeing a $1b float

Four decades after fleeing his homeland, Van Thanh Luong may now be Australia’s most successful Vietnamese refugee businessperson.

Now worth $500 million, When Van Thanh Luong first arrived in Melbourne in 1982 he had to borrow 10c to make a phone call. Eamon Gallagher

Van Thanh Luong had a dilemma. It was late 1982 and after eight months on a Malaysian island with thousands of other Vietnamese refugees, he'd finally been flown to Melbourne and bussed to a migrant hostel in Springvale.

Just about the only valuable possession he had left was a scrap of paper with a phone number for his elder brother. But as he stood outside, with little English and no money, the 18-year-old Luong had no clue how he was going to call it.

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Greg Earl
Greg EarlContributorGreg Earl is an editor and writer. He was the AFR deputy editor, opinion editor, Asia-Pacific editor and a correspondent in Jakarta, Tokyo and New York. Connect with Greg on Twitter.

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Original URL: https://www.afr.com/wealth/people/meet-the-refugee-eyeing-a-1-billion-float-20191128-p53ecv