Terry Gou (
Gou, 54, was ranked 176th richest on the Forbes list for last year, with assets of US$2.8 billion, while Lin Yuan Group founder Tsai, who died in September of respiratory failure at the age of 79, was ranked No. 94 last year with assets of US$4.6 billion.
Gou built his fortune after starting the company in 1974 with an investment of NT$300,000 to make plastic knobs for television sets. Now Hon Hai Precision mainly produces electrical connectors and assembles personal computers for Dell and Hewlett-Packard, and is tapping into mobile phone and flat-screen liquid-crystal-display manufacturing.
Several Taiwanese billionaires are on this year's list. They are: Formosa Group chairman Wang Yung-ching (
Evergreen Group founder Chang Yung-fa (
Asia-wide, Lakshmi Mittal, chief executive of Mittal Steel Co, overtook Li Ka-shing (
Mittal, 54, had the biggest increase in personal wealth in the annual survey by Forbes, jumping to the No. 3 spot behind Microsoft Corp Chairman Bill Gates and Berkshire Hathaway Inc Chairman Warren Buffett as his fortune increased by US$18.8 billion to US$25 billion. Hong Kong's Li, 76, was 22nd with US$13 billion.
Indian-born Mittal has bought steel mills from Poland to South Africa since 2003, benefiting from soaring demand from shipyards and building sites in China. Li, chairman of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd, has concentrated on expanding his mobile-phone businesses.
"It shows the rise of commodities and the fall of tech," said Manu Bhaskaran, head of economic research at Centennial Group.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
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