Recruiting in China

China’s super rich only got richer despite the mixed news on the economic front with numbers up a record high, Forbes magazine said in Shanghai yesterday.

The magazine yesterday released the 2013 Forbes China Rich List, a ranking of the top 400 wealthiest Chinese.

Based on calculations as of September 26, the number of Chinese mainland residents with personal assets of more than US$1 billion rose to 168 — an increase of nearly 49 percent from last year’s 113.

The combined net worth of those on the list surged 35 percent to 3,475 billion yuan (US$570 million), or 8.7 billion yuan each on average.

For the top 100, the wealth growth was even faster, reaching a pace of 44 percent.

Though the rapid rise in the numbers of the wealthy individuals seems a little out of sync with the current slowing economy, it is a reflection of the earning power of some entrepreneurs, and the money-spinning power of some hot industries like the Internet, automobiles, entertainment and real estate, said Russell Flannery, Shanghai bureau chief of the magazine.

On top of the list is property tycoon Wang Jianlin, chairman of Dalian Wanda Group, with 86 billion yuan.

Last year’s richest man, beverage king Zong Qinghou of Hangzhou Wahaha Group, was second with 68.3 billion yuan.

Robin Li, founder of Baidu, China’s biggest search engine provider, was third on the list with 67.7 billion yuan.

The IT industry was led by Pony Ma of Tencent with 62.2 billion yuan, and Jack Ma of Alibaba with 43.4 billion yuan — both ranking in the top 10.

There are 87 new faces on the list.

Among the newcomers, the biggest heavyweight is Li Hejun of Hanergy, one of the world’s biggest solar panel makers, with 66.5 billion yuan in personal assets.

“Despite the continued economic slowdown, China’s current urbanization level can still bolster the pace of development of consumer products and services, pharmaceutical and health care, culture and entertainment as well as mobile Internet, making these industries key players in China’s wealth creation movement,” Zhou Jiangong, editor-in-chief of the Forbes magazine’s Chinese version, said.