Richest doubled wealth

One of the new billionaires was coal magnate Low Tuck Kwong (right), whose Bayan Resources soared 474 per cent this year, while the country's main stock index has climbed more than 80 per cent. -- PHOTO: MANHATTAN INVESTMENTS

JAKARTA - INDONESIA'S 40 richest people have doubled their wealth in the past year to US$42 billion (S$58 billion), mainly on the back of commodities like coal and palm oil, Forbes magazine reported on Thursday.

The elite club has surpassed its previous total-wealth record, set in 2007, by $2 billion, despite the financial crisis which swept the world last year, the magazine said on its website.

Of the 12 main Asia-Pacific economies surveyed, Forbes said only China's wealthiest saw a better improvement, rising to a combined $106 billion from $52 billion. India's richest were the next, with their total wealth increasing 65 per cent.

'Global demand for Indonesia's natural resources fuelled the rise of many fortunes on this list,' the business magazine said. 'More than one-third of the top 40 make the bulk of their money in coal, palm oil or oil and gas, including four of the five newcomers.'

Nine Indonesian tycoons at least tripled their wealth since last year, it said, and the Southeast Asian powerhouse now has 12 billionaires with a combined wealth of $28 billion, from seven last year.

The brothers R. Budi and Michael Hartono, whose interests include clove cigarettes, banking and the upmarket Grand Indonesia shopping mall, claimed the top spot with a pooled wealth of $7 billion. -- AFP