A 37-year-old home appliance retailer has topped a young field
of millionaires in the latest China rich list released by US
financial magazine 'Forbes' Thursday.
Wong Kwong Yu, the founder of Gome Appliances who has amassed a
net worth of 18.1 billion yuan (US$2.3 billion), is the richest
person on the Chinese mainland.
Last year's number one, Larry Rong Zhijian, 63, of Hong
Kong-listed Citic Pacific, dropped two places to third with a net
worth of US$2 billion, according to the list of the 400 richest
people in China.
Wong's fortune has almost doubled in the past year as Chinese
consumers snapped up household goods at his Gome chain of stores.
The timely sale of stock increased his cash reserves.
The magazine observed that more than a quarter of
the top 40 were under 40 and the average age in China was much
younger than in the US. "It reflects a fact that China's economic
development has a short history up to now," said Russell Flannery,
Forbes' Shanghai bureau chief and the list compiler.
The combined net worth of the top 40 rose by 46 percent in 2006
to a record US$38 billion from $26 billion in 2005. The threshold
for listing increased from 500 million yuan (US$62 million) in 2005
to 800 million yuan this year.
Flannery said the international stock listings by China's
private sector were the major reason for the jump in wealth. "All
of the top five have listed their companies in Hong Kong and 65 of
the top 100 have major stakes in international stock markets. The
previous figures were 60 in 2005, 43 in 2003 and 20 in 2002."
Zhang Yin, the 49-year-old co-founder and chairman of
Guangdong-based Nine Dragons Paper Industries Co. Ltd., ranked
fifth on the list, making her the richest woman. But she was listed
atop another Chinese rich list published last month by Englishman
Rupert Hoogewerf.
Forbes noted that China's wealth was
highly concentrated. Among the 400, half are from China's most
developed regions: 66 from Guangdong Province, followed by Zhejiang with 47, Shanghai 46 and Beijing
42.
(Xinhua News Agency November 3, 2006)
