| The Honourable Sir Tan Sri Hiew-king Tiong KBE |
|
|---|---|
| Born | 1935 (age 76–77) |
| Occupation | Executive Chairman, Rimbunan Hijau |
| Net worth | US$1.1 billion (2007)[1] |
Sir Tan Sri Datuk Hiew-king Tiong (simplified Chinese: 张晓卿; traditional Chinese: 張曉卿; pinyin: Zhāng Xiǎoqīng) is the Malaysian Chinese founder and chairman of the Rimbunan Hijau Group, a timber company founded in 1975. Its overseas timber operations in Papua New Guinea is the largest in that country. He also has interests in logging operations in Russia.
Tan Sri Datuk Tiong resides in Sibu, a town in Sarawak, of Borneo island that belongs to Malaysia. With a reported net worth of about US$1.1 billion, Tiong is ranked by Forbes as the 840th richest person in the world.[1]
Tiong's Rimbunan Hijau Group also controls Sin Chew Jit Poh and Guang Ming Daily, two of the major Chinese national dailies in Malaysia, The National Daily in Papua New Guinea and Ming Pao Holdings Ltd in Hong Kong. He is forging a global Chinese publishing group with his Ming Pao Enterprises; Ming Pao newspaper is also available in San Francisco (no longer in business since Feb. 15, 2009),[2] New York, Vancouver and Toronto.[3]
Back home in Sibu, Tiong and his family are members of the ruling Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP), a major party of the ruling coalition government in Sarawak. Tiong's younger brother Tiong Thai King has been the Member of Parliament of the Lanang Parliamentary Constituency in Sibu since 1995 till today.
Residents in Sibu were told in the Malaysian general election, 1995 that by going abroad was to look after the welfare of fellow Sibu Fuzhou employees', since the forest of Sarawak was depleting fast. The election campaign statements were made very touchy to the Sibu voters in the general election.[4]