Book Nook: Asia's New Wealth Club
Book Nook: Asia's New Wealth Club
Asia's New Wealth Club;By Geoff Hiscock; Nicholas Brealey
Publishing, 2000; 348 pp; US$19.95
JAKARTA (JP): Who is the richest person in Indonesia? It is
Rachman Halim, and you will need only a split second to know the
answer after flipping through this book.
It may come as a surprise to many that it is not former
president Soeharto, with an estimated wealth of US$2 billion.
Halim and the Wonowidjojo family, who own the huge Gudang
Garam kretek (clove-flavored) cigarette company, edged out
Soeharto with their $2.2 billion wealth.
Richness is a tempting attribute to many and Geoff Hiscock,
the international business editor of The Australian , banks on
the deep human curiosity we share to find out how much others are
worth.
He monitors the wealth of 100 Asian billionaires in the year
2000 whose total assets are no less than $300 billion. The book
is an update of his Asia's Wealth Club published three years ago.
He also tells that Soeharto, listed 55th among the 100
billionaires, was ranked ninth in 1997. Halim was down to 42nd in
2000 from seventh three years ago.
The number one slot in Asia was held by Masayoshi Son, a
Korean Japanese who founded Softbank Corporation. His fortune
totals $18 billion.
The last slot was secured by Indonesia's Putera Sampoerna and
family, also owner of a major kretek cigarette business, with $1
billion.
The kretek business is a big business in Indonesia, so it
seems. This is the kind of picture Hiscock wishes to create in
the readers' mind through a big brush stroke of the business map
in a given country. He succeeds overwhelmingly in this aim.
He also provides fascinating insight into the lives of 15
billionaires in different countries and how they dealt with the
Asian financial crisis.
Hiscock draws on his extensive experience as a business
journalist in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Bangkok for the book.
If they wish, readers could continue their own search about
Indonesia as Hiscock lists six billionaires in the country. Apart
from Halim and Soeharto, there are Liem Sioe Liong, Eka Tjipta
Widjaya, Mochtar Riady and Putera Sampoerna in that order. (hbk)