Business News
Hong Kong, China and India overtake Japan in billionaire stakes
Mar 9, 2007, 6:15 GMT
Hong Kong - Hong Kong and China have overtaken Japan to claim the largest number of billionaires in Asia, according to the annual Forbes Magazine rich list published Friday.
China, which had just seven US dollar billionaires in 2006, had 20 in the 2007 list while Hong Kong has added five new billionaires to give it a total of 21, the magazine found.
The total of 41 for China and Hong Kong exceeds Japan's 24 billionaires, leaving Japan unable to claim the highest concentration of billionaires in Asia as it has for the past 20 years.
Japan was also overtaken by India which now has a total of 36 billionaires, illustrating the growing economic strength of the world's two most populous nations.
Asia's richest man was Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing who has a 23-billion-US-dollar fortune and is the ninth wealthiest person in the world, according to Forbes.
Yan Cheung, chairwoman of Nine Dragons Paper, was named China's richest person with a fortune of 2.4 billion US dollars, putting her 390th on the list of nearly 1,000 billionaires.
The world's richest person was Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, topping the global list for the 13th straight year with a worth of 56 billion US dollars.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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