China's richest man worth $1.9 billion, Forbes reports

November 10, 2000
Web posted at: 8:14 AM HKT (0014 GMT)

SHANGHAI, China (Reuters) -- China's wealthiest denizens have got richer this year, but Rong Yiren, former Chinese vice president and ex-chairman of the country's premier investment firm CITIC, still tops the chart, according to Forbes magazine.

Rong and his family have net holdings of $1.9 billion, nearly a fifth of the combined estimated wealth of China's top 50 entrepreneurs, which totals $10 billion, the magazine said.

The 84-year old Rong was born in Wuxi in Jiangsu province and his family, in textiles and flour mills, was the wealthiest in Shanghai before the Communists took over in 1949.

He decided to stay in China after the revolution and in 1956 handed his business over to the government.

Rong set up China International Trust and Investment Corp in 1978, the largest and arguably most successful of China's trusts, formed to bring foreign investment into the country.

Rong was vice president of China from 1993 to 1998.

The magazine's estimate of his wealth is based on an 18 percent stake in Hong Kong-listed CITIC Pacific owned by his son Larry Yung in mid-September. Forbes said the value of CITIC Pacific's shares has dropped by a tenth since.

"Rong is number one on the list because the wealth amassed by his son reflects Rong's influence in China," Forbes said.

Compared to findings last year, the individual in 50th place, motorcycle manufacturer Yin Mingshan, is worth $42 million, up significantly from the $6 million cut-off point last year.

"There has probably never been a better time for capitalists in modern China," Forbes said in a statement.

"If China is to compete in the world economy under World Trade Organisation rules, the only way it can do so is to rely on the millions of entrepreneurs that have emerged in the past 20 years -- and the millions more to come... This puts China's capitalists in the driver's seat of the economy," it added.

China is likely to join the WTO in the next few months. There are 30 new names on the list this year. Forty-seven are men and three are women. Twenty-one did not go to college primarily because their education was cut short by the Cultural Revolution from 1966-76, the magazine said.

Five are in agriculture, 29 in manufacturing and 14 made their money from Internet or high-tech ventures.

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