The world has a new richest man, and his claim of the throne is being seen as a sign that the world's wealthiest club, traditionally dominated by Americans and Europeans, is seeing an increasing amount of fresh blood from emerging countries.
The latest Forbes rich list came out Thursday, and while the biggest revelation was that neither Bill Gates' nor Warren Buffet's names topped the list, it also showed that the Asia-Pacific region and emerging countries are producing more tycoons than ever before.
It was a narrow win, but Mexican telecom giant Carlos Slim used his $53.5 billion net worth to slip past Gates and his $53 billion, knocking Microsoft's co-founder into second a year after he had reclaimed the top spot from Buffet. Gates had been the richest person for 14 of the last 15 years.
Also flexing its new muscle was China, which more than doubled its number of billionaires last year. The nation led the way among all Asian nations, which combined to produce 234 billionaire tycoons, up from just 130 last year.
The combined wealth of the super-rich in Asia-Pacific region more than doubled from $357 billion to $729 billion, far outpacing any other nation's collective growth.
The US still led the list with 403 billionaires, with Americans accounting for 40 percent of the super rich, but that percentage is down 5 points from last year.
Meanwhile, China placed 64 from the mainland on the list, up from 28 last year. Coming in second in Asia was India, with its billionaire count rising from 24 to 49. Hong Kong was third with 25, Japan followed with 18, then came 11 from Taiwan.
Of the 97 names that made their debut on the list, 62 are from Asia, a nine-fold increase from last year when only seven new faces came from Asia.
The top two richest from the Asia-Pacific region, Mukesh Ambani and Lakshmi Mittal, are from India. They were said to be worth $29 billion and .7 billion, respectively, ranking 4th and 5th on the global list.
Forbes' Shanghai bureau chief, Russell Flannery, told the Global Times that the result shows the remarkable changes taking place in the global economic landscape.
"Those on the list raked in a lot of fortune thanks to the strong performance of the stock market in the Asia Pacific region over the past year," he said.
The average net worth of the world's billionaires is now $3.5 billion, up $500 million from last year, and the total number of billionaires on this year's list rose from 793 to 1,011.
Chinese entrepreneur Zong Qinghou, CEO of eastern Hangzhou's Wahaha Group, is the wealthiest person on the Chinese mainland. The tycoon, with his $7 billion beverage empire, ranks 103rd on the list.
Animal feed tycoon Liu Yongxing of Hope Group and home appliances tycoon Zhang Jindong of the Sunning Group are listed as the second- and third-richest men in China, ranking 154th and 176th on the list.
Topping last year's list was Wang Chuanfu, president of Shenzhen-based BYD Automobile, with $5.8 billion, followed by Liu at $5.5 billion and Zong at $4.8 billion.
There are 25 tycoons from Hong Kong on the list, with many of the region's wealthiest people boosting their fortunes from investments on the Chinese mainland.
Li Ka-shing, the 81-year-old head of conglomerate Cheung Kong Holdings, was once again the richest person in Hong Kong with $21 billion, ranking 14th on the global list.
Flannery attributed the increase of Chinese billionaires on the list to the nation's well-performing economy over the past year and the maturing of its financial market.
"The Chinese government achieved the 8 percent goal of GDP growth as expected for the year 2009; Robust economy has won more confidence of investors from both home and abroad," he explained.
However, Ding Yifan, deputy director of the Institute of World Development, told the Global Times that it is a hint that China's economic development pattern is still lagging behind, as the richest in China are limited to the beverage and animal feed industry, a sharp contrast with the world's wealthiest who are from telecom and IT sectors.
"China's richest rank lower than those of India because we only assess China's private companies instead of its State-owned companies, which are even wealthier than those on the list," Zhou Jiangong, chief editor of the Forbes Chinese version, told the Global Times, admitting that the list is far from a compete picture of the wealthiest people around the world.
But while more Chinese tycoons storm the Forbes rich list, an increasingly widening gap between the rich and poor is gripping China, prompting its leadership to express concern about the issue, saying that if it isn't addressed, social instability could ensue.
(By Song Shengxia, Guo Qiang contributed to this story)
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