It is a fair bet that many of Australia’s richest entrepreneurs were watching Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s first visit to China very closely last week.
The talks, which ranged across free trade, defence and, to a lesser extent, human rights, were seen as Gillard’s opportunity to introduce herself to what has become Australia’s most important trading partner and the key driver of our economy.
China has also become a key driver of Australia’s rich list, with a large number of billionaire fortunes tied directly or indirectly to the continued growth of the world’s most populous nation.
Consider the following 10 fortunes as a starting point:
Much to the relief of these entrepreneurs, the talks between Julia Gillard and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao went well, with both sides making the right noises about closer economic ties, more involved free trade discussions and co-operation in everything from research in renewable fuels to infrastructure construction.
Of course, for Gillard and this group of wealthy entrepreneurs, future talks don’t matter as much as China’s continued growth.
While China is trying to slow its growth rate from 9% to a more stable 7% between now and 2015, a sharper slowdown would be bad news for the Australian economy – corporate profits and government tax revenues would be hit and economic growth would likely fall.
The impact on the rich list would be severe too. Right now, Rinehart and Forrest look like building an unassailable lead over their rivals at the top of the list, but sharp falls in commodity prices would bring them right back to the pack.
The rich list would go from being dominated by Australians selling stuff to the world (Rinehart and Forrest) back to Australians selling stuff to each other (Frank Lowy and Anthony Pratt).
Given how important China has become to Australia’s wealthy, it’s probably fitting that Gillard should visit China on the week that a list of the richest Chinese entrepreneurs around the world should be released by local media organisation Forbes China.
The list, which includes a staggering 213 billionaires, is particularly interesting in that it includes Chinese entrepreneurs based around the world, including Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.
The three richest entrepreneurs on the list are based in Hong Kong and all are prominently involved in property.
Li Kai-shing, with a fortune estimated at $US26 billion, beat out Thomas and Raymond Kwok and Lee Shau Kee for the title of the richest Chinese entrepreneur in the world.
But perhaps more interesting is the list of the wealthiest from mainland China.
This title was taken out by Robin Li, the founder of the popular Chinese search engine Baidu, which has been a huge beneficiary of Google’s decision to withdraw most of its operations from the Chinese market. He is worth $US9.4 billion.
Li was just in front of Liang Wengen, chairman and major shareholder of construction giant Sany Group (with a fortune of $US8 billion) and Zong Qinghou, the founder of China’s largest beverage producer, Wahaha (fortune of $US5.9 billion).
For the moment at least, the initial Chinese fortunes seem to be being built by domestically-focused players. It will be interesting to see whether over time this changes, as has happened in Australia.
James was the editor and publisher of SmartCompany and LeadingCompany for five years. He is now the Australian Financial Review‘s companies & markets editor, and a former BRW editor.
