Top 100 Private Groups by GlobeAsia magazine
GlobeAsia magazine publishes its annual rankings of wealthiest individuals in Indonesia, best universities, and even the largest private groups. As already mentioned, State Owned Entreprises (SOEs) are not included in the list.
The figures for annual revenues are probably rounded to the nearest $ ’00,000,000 (US$10 million) for the first 27 grouops. This list was published in June 2009, presumably the figures correspond to the latest financial year. Foreign owned entreprises operating in Indonesia have also being included if their sales figures in Indonesia for the year earned them a place in the top 100 Private Groups list.
Vital role of State owned Entreprises
Oil company Pertamina still remains Indonesia’s single largest entreprise measured by annual sales figures. Other large state-owned entreprises such as PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN), PT Bank Rakyat Tbk, PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk, PT Bank Negara Indonesia among others play a vital role and would be included in any ranking of the largest Indonesian companies if the only criterion were its annual revenues. PT PAL, PT Dirgantara, PT Bumi Resources Tbk. and many other notable entreprises involved in strategically important industries are also state-owned.
As in most other South East Asian (ASEAN) countries with significant ethnic Chinese populations, Indonesia too has a disproportionately high share of ethnic Chinese amongst the list of its wealthiest tycoons. It is little wonder that this GlobeAsia Top 100 Private Businesses List is also dominated at the top by ethnic-Chinese owned entreprises.
The same feature can be seen in Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines and ASEAN in general.
Scope for progress remains
The world’s 4th most populous country is involved a wide variety of industries and economic sectors including pharmaceuticals, automotive industry, shipbuilding, aerospace, textiles, garments, chemicals, mining, metallurgy, banking, finance (incl. banking and finance in accordance with the Sharia’h) which is an encouraging sign.
The volume of activity one may expect from such a populous, strategically located, naturally resourceful country which has shown healthy economic progress in the last few years is not reflected in this list.
Considering that most “strategically important” industries are dominated by the government and the private sector by the minority ethnic-Chinese population to a large extent, there is scope for more progress for the world’s 3rd largest democracy.
