林绍良Liem Sioe Liong (Indonesia)

Chairman of Salim Group,

Economic Advisor to The Indonesian Government

Liem shaking hands with former Indonesian

President Suharto (Image from Asiaweek)

Biodata

BORN:                    July 16, 1916, Fujian province, China

EDUCATION:            Junior high school, Fujian

FAMILY:                  Married, four children

Billionaire Indonesian Chinese Liem Sioe Liong, whose wealth rivals American

tycoons like Du Pont and Rockefeller, has been crowned one of the world’s

six richest.  His close ties to President Suharto date to the early days of the

republic, and he single-handedly established Indonesia's largest corporate

group (Indocement, Indofood) as well as huge businesses in the Philippines,

Thailand, Hong Kong and China. However, he was reluctant to publicly list

some of his Indonesian companies, probably to avoid scrutiny.

His career epitomises the meteoric rise in Chinese fortunes under Suharto

and sheds light on the close ties between the community and Indonesia's

rulers.  He once said: “Half of one’s success can be attributed to chance

and opportunity, while the other half is sheer grit and determination.”  This

is his personal motto and reflection of his own struggles to get to the top.

Liem’s Younger Days

Liem Sioe Liong was born in Haikou, Fujian province in 1916.  He was an avid

learner with a stunning memory, and was enrolled in his village’s private

school at age 7.  Unfortunately, poverty put a stop to his schooling days and

at 15, his family rented a shophouse for him in the village to run a stall selling

noodle-soup.  After the 918 Incident, his stall was forced to shut down

amidst the pandemonium of war.  In 1935, Liem’s father passed away, and

the family burden fell upon the shoulders of his mother.  At this time, the

village was rife with rumours of the Kuomintang seizing able-bodied young

men for conscription.  His mother eventually told him to strike it out in

Southeast Asia (Nanyang), partly to take his chances, but mostly to avoid

conscription.

The young Liem migrated from Fujian province in the 1920s, arriving in

Indonesia with hardly a penny to his name.  He was barely 20 when he

reached Indonesia, and spent his initial days staying with an uncle, helping

out at his uncle’s provision shop.  However, the provision shop’s business

was very thin, and finally, Liem decided to start his own hawker business

selling coffee powder.

The days of peddling coffee powder were grueling.  He had to wake up

everyday at midnight to grind the coffee beans into coffee powder, and wrap

the powder in newspaper, into packets of 50g or 100g.  Rain or shine, he rode

his bicycle to places as far as 70 km away to peddle his wares.  But hardship

only served to strengthen his will, and through his contacts with his

customers, he got to know many people.

Indonesia was originally a colony of the Netherlands. On 7^th December 1941,

the Japanese waged the Pacific War, and invaded Indonesia.  In August 1945,

the Japanese were finally defeated, and Indonesia became a republic. 

However, the Dutch returned to reclaim its lost colony, and war broke out

yet again.

Liem’s big break came when he acquainted the young nationalist commander

Suharto during the war of independence. He saw which way the wind was

blowing and started using his trading network to help the independence

movement, smuggling supplies and, according to some, arms to the rebels.

While Liem was a military supplier during the war of independence, he spotted

an opportunity in cloves.  Cloves are a vital ingredient in Indonesian-style

cigarettes or kreteks. By exploiting maritime connections in the Fujian

overseas community, Liem was able to get more cloves to more kretek

factories faster and cheaper than his competitors. He quickly became a

millionaire.

Post-Independence Days

Liem, unlike Riady who was arrested and deported for pro-independence a

ctivities, was careful not to attract the notice of the authorities. Following

independence, Liem assessed the situation and decided to employ the

strategy of first pursuing businesses to meet the people’s basic need for

clothing, food, lodging and transportation (衣食住行), and then diversify later

into other businesses.

His first venture was in textiles, followed by rubber (for manufacturing tyres),

nails (which were in short supply), bicycle parts and soap.  His business

formula was an instant hit, and wealth came pouring in.  Under Mr Suharto,

the route to success for Chinese Indonesians lay in finding a patron. And

patrons did not come bigger than the president himself. With Suharto’s

patronage, Liem received monopolies in flour, clove importation and cement.

In 1969, Liem made a proposal to the Government to set up an flour mill in

Indonesia to cope with the critical shortage of flour the post-indepedence

days. His proposal was swiftly approved, and he was granted 2/3 monopoly

rights to the national flour production output.  By the 80s, Liem’s flour mills

were able to meet 80percent of the nation’s demand for flour, and was the largest

flour mill in Asia.

While this was going on, Liem never gave up his clove business.  In 1986,

Liem received sole importer right from the government to import cloves into

Indonesia, and he started two companies to handle clove imports.  The

amount of imports handled by these companies is approximately 90percent of the

clove output in Africa’s largest clove-producing countries.

In 1975, Liem built his cement factory (狄斯水泥).  Annual production capacity

rocketed from 500,000 tonnes to 1 million tones, reaching 2 million tones by

1978 with the construction of a larger facility, and becoming the largest

cement conglomerate in Indonesia.

A Formula of Diversification

After Mr Suharto began implementing his new economic policy, Liem began

moving into banking and other businesses, including textiles, chemicals and

property. Rich beyond the dreams of avarice, Liem is involved in everything.

In 1957, Liem started his own bank with help from Bangkok Bank.  In the 70s,

he diversified into properties, construction and tourism.  In the late 70s, Liem

moved into the auto industry.  Now, Liem’s empire covers textiles, cement,

chemicals, electronics, forestry, fishery, freight and transportation, insurance,

finance, property, gold and precious stones, hotels, medical equipment,

communications, metals etc.  The Salim Group’s headquarter is based in

Jakarta, with some 60 subsidiaries across four continent, including countries

like Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Netherlands and the USA.

Business for Liem is a virtuous circle. Salim Group banks manage his trading

empire, which in turn transports his raw materials to his factories, which

produce goods sold in shops rented from his property interests.

Liem has passed the baton to a new generation. Anthony Salim now takes

care of day-to-day operations of the Salim empire.

Source:

Asia Power50 1996

http://special.scmp.com/wchal/background/ZZZKYOJ7CPC.html

http://www.wiseman.com.cn/gcxmavin/enterpriser/enterprisers/02.htm

Compiled and translated by Willie Hsu