He may be one of the richest men in Malaysia, with interests in timber, media and plantations, but Sarawakian tycoon Tan Sri Tiong Hiew King, who was born to a poor family in Sibu, spent a large part of his youth tapping rubber.

Tiong’s destiny changed when in 1950, he started working for an uncle who ran a timber company, thus introducing him to his raison d’etre. He founded his own timber company Rimbunan Hijau in 1975 which acquired its first modern sawmill and moulding factory in Tanjung Ensurai, near Sibu five years later.

In the first decade, the company grew slowly, husbanding its resources and putting the pieces in place for it to take off. In 1985, one decade from when it began, Rimbunan Hijau had become one of the largest operators and timber concession holders in Sarawak.

In 1989, the company ventured overseas, moving into Papua New Guinea, which was to become one of its major bases in the Rimbunan Hijau Group in the Asia-Pacific region. In 1993, it started the first English language newspaper, The National, in PNG.

Today, the company has set up timber processing facilities in PNG, Africa, China, Russia and New Zealand. His publicly-traded timber companies are Subur Tiasa Holdings Bhd and Jaya Tiasa Holdings Bhd.

Over the past 20 years, Tiong has built up a business that spans six continents with operations in Japan, Hong Kong, Australia, Canada, the US, New Zealand, Singapore, Russia, PNG, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Brazil and British Guyana. He also has investments in Shanghai, Dalian, Harbin, Datong and Guangzhou in China.

Tiong's media empire includes the country's top Chinese language dailies.

Tiong urges his workers to be 'realistic, kind, humble, earnest and compassionate'.

He has diversified into finance, media, IT, mining, aquaculture, agriculture (oil palm plantation), reforestation, trading and property development.

Of all the developments in its timber operations, perhaps the most interesting aspect is the company’s approach. Today, its corporate website takes pains to stress the sustainable component of its logging activities. “We not only cut trees, we also plant. RH Group is actively planning trees to help boost regeneration rates of logged areas both locally and overseas. Tan Sri Datuk Tiong is currently a director of the World Forest Center, and is doing his part in forest resources management, environmental protection as well as flood control.”

Although he is better known as a timber tycoon, Tiong has also made a significant impression in the plantations and media industries. He controls Media Chinese International Ltd (MCIL), a Chinese-language newspaper and magazine publisher formed by the successful merger of Ming Pao Enterprise Corp Ltd, Sin Chew Media Corp Bhd and Nanyang Press Holdings Bhd.  

It has publications in Malaysia, Hong Kong and North America. In Malaysia, MCIL’s titles include the country’s top-selling Chinese newspapers — Sin Chew Jit Poh, Nanyang Siang Pau, Guang Ming Daily and China Press.

MCIL’s portfolio of media products comprises five dailies with a total daily circulation of over one million, two free dailies and over 30 magazine titles in key cities in North America, Southeast Asia and Greater China, serving a vast population of readers literate
in the Chinese language.

It is the first company dually traded on the main boards of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong and Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd.

Tiong has often declared his intention of building a strong global Chinese media group to safeguard the interests of the Chinese diaspora throughout the world and in 2002 he was made president of the World Chinese Press Association in recognition of his contributions to the industry.

His plantations company Rimbunan Sawit is not doing too badly either. A latecomer to the sector, like many timber moguls before him, he diversified into plantations and through a series of acquisitions since the company was listed on the Bursa Malaysia main board. While it only had 13,663ha of oil palm estates at the time of its IPO, it acquired enough land to reach the 100,000ha mark by February this year. During this time, the company produced up to 380,000 tonnes of fresh fruit bunches a year while its average FFB yield per hectare was about 13 tonnes.

In addition, some 70% of its estates were planted with young palms aged 10 years and below. And about 50% of its total land bank is planted. In a report in early January, OSK Research described Rimbunan Sawit as one of the five “hidden jewels” in the Malaysian stock market for 2011, calling it one o the cheapest in terms of price-earnings ratio, trading at around 10 times historical earnings.

Tiong himself remains true to his Fuzhou roots. In a message to his people on the website entitled “work attitude and human relations” which was Confucian in nature, he urged them to work hard with passion, not to feel inferior to others no matter what their place on the food chain, and to be “realistic, kind, humble, earnest and compassionate”.

He pointed out that today’s hard work may not bring immediate success but as he himself has clearly demonstrated, “persistent perseverance” will eventually lead to rewards.

This article appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, September 15, 2011.