Taiwan has 38 billionaires — seven of them new entrants — appearing on this year’s Forbes Billionaires List, published on Monday.
Want Want Group chairman Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明) is once again the wealthiest person in the nation, with an estimated worth of US$8.9 billion.
Tsai’s wealth was said to be down from US$9.5 billion a year ago as a result of slower economic growth across the Taiwan Strait.
On the overall, global list, Tsai was ranked 147th.
Forbes said Apple Inc supplier Hon Hai Precision Industry Co chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) moved up to the No. 2 ranking on the domestic list following the death last year of Fubon Group chairman Tsai Wan-tsai (蔡萬才).
Tsai’s sons, Daniel (蔡明忠) and Richard (蔡明興), were on the list for the first time, with an estimated worth of US$3 billion each.
The other newcomers were art and electronics tycoon Pierre Chen (陳泰銘), at US$2 billion; optics producer Scott Lin (林耀英) at US$1.5 billion; optics producer Tony Chen (陳世卿) at US$1.2 billion; auto parts magnate Chin Jong-hwa (秦榮華) at US$1 billion; and financier Thomas Wu (吳東亮) at US$1 billion.
“Taiwan’s list is dotted with returnee tech suppliers, including Richard Chang (張汝京) of semiconductor packaging house Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc and Bruce Cheng (鄭崇華), whose Delta Electronics Inc is also an Apple supplier,” Forbes writer Russell Flannery said.
“Want Want China honed its production and sales skills in its home Taiwan’s Chinese-style snack food market before expanding into the mainland’s in the 1980s. After years of success, it hit a bump last year, and warned last month that profit may have fallen in 2014,” Flannery said in an online comment.
However, Flannery said that was not enough to bump Tsai Eng-meng from the No. 1 spot in Taiwan.
“Want Want is still potent competition for rivals that include the likes of Coke, Pepsi and Unilever in the still-growing China market,” Forbes said.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
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