Rupert Hoogewerf, who made his name by compiling the Forbes China's mainland "rich list," said he will release a new list of 100 wealthiest people on the mainland next Thursday in partnership with a UK-based publisher.

The top-100 list, together with three separate lists that rank the top-50 business people within the property, information technology and the capital market sectors, will be published in a special edition of Euromoney, a London-based publication.

Hoogewerf said he is currently making final checks on the list to ensure its accuracy when it hits the newsstand.

"We started this year's work nearly six months ago and we short-listed 100 people from more than 2,000 candidates," said the Englishman.

Hoogewerf teamed up with Euromoney in June after Forbes magazine announced earlier this year that it was terminating its four-year association with the chartered accountant. It plans to use its own staff for this year's Forbes list.

Hoogewerf said that a fair number of Shanghai entrepreneurs will be listed in this year's publication, although he declined to give a specific number.

He said Zhou Zhengyi, who was apprehended for fraud after being ranked 11th with US$320 million in asset by Forbes last year, won't appear on the new list.

Last year, Rong Zhijian, or Larry Yung as he is known in Hong Kong, was ranked number one by Forbes. The owner of the Hong Kong-based Citic Pacific Group, an arm of China International Trust & Investment Co Ltd, was listed to have a personal wealth of about US$850 million.

Hoogewerf's new rich list differs from previously offerings as it sheds more light on the three different sectors, each an important cog in China's economic growth.

The IT list will name the 50 richest people operating high-technology companies in China based on personal assets. The property sector list is what Hoogewerf calls the "Real Estate Influence List," a ranking of the top votegetters from votes cast by 120 practitioners within the property industry.

"Last year, there were not so many entrepreneurs from the IT sector in the ranking. But it is the one of the most important and promising sectors in China's economic development," Hoogewerf said.

The capital market list ranks those who holds shares in either domestic or overseas stock markets, such as the technology-heavy Nasdaq which Hoogewerf particularly mentions. It also accommodates several Chinese portal Websites, based on the market capitalization of the closing price for the middle of last month.

(China Daily October 13, 2003)