Eka Tjipta Widjaja

Eka Widjaja Tjipta (Chinese黄奕 聪, Pinyin Huang Yicong, also: Oei Ek Tjhong, born October 3, 1923 in Quanzhou, China) is the founder of Sinar Mas Group, one of the largest conglomerates in Indonesia. His family bank, Bank Internasional Indonesia ( BII ), which is registered in the Cook Islands, funded many of his projects. She wrote $ 9.7 billion loss during the economic crisis of 1997/ 98 and was taken over by the Indonesian government. Widjaja is the second richest tycoon in Indonesia.

Life

Widjaja came at the age of nine with his father from Fujian province in China to Indonesia. His father opened there in Ujung Pandang (now Makassar ) a small shop. Widjaja was taught in a Chinese school site, but left this at the age of 15 years to sell a bicycle rickshaw as hawkers pastries. During the Japanese occupation of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War - Widjaja was 19 years old - he was imprisoned by the Japanese in two weeks because of " non-cooperation ". His first steps as an entrepreneur started Widjaja with a small snack bar, in addition, he also sold agricultural products. The foundation for his company in 1955 as he put Koprahändler in the north of Sulawesi, in 1969 followed by the establishment of PT Bitung Manado Indonesia Oil, a company which specialized in the production of edible oil. The company operated up to 50 % of edible oil demand in the Indonesian market. Widjaja expanded its business with Sinar Mas to the areas of pulp and paper manufacturing, real estate, finance and agro-industry. In the edible oil industry, he went into a joint venture with the Salim Group, which, however, was re-dissolved in 1990. He received in 1990 an honorary doctorate in Economics from the Pittsburgh State University in Kansas. Widjaja is one of the 40 richest Indonesians and friends of the late President Suharto.

Widjaja is no longer actively involved in the business and has taken the lead passed to his sons, Indra, Teguh Ganda and Franky Oesman and to his grandson Eric Oei Kang, who heads the Hong Kong-listed contractors Creator Holdings.

On 17 March 2006, the Widjaja family founded the Eka Tjipta Foundation ( ETF), a foundation that has set itself the goal of quality of life and social conditions in Indonesia to improve. Chairman is Eka Widjaja Tjipta.