Medan is the capital and largest city of the Indonesian province of North Sumatra. The nearby Strait of Malacca, Port of Belawan, and Kualanamu International Airport make Medan a regional hub and multicultural metropolis, acting as a financial centre for Sumatra and a gateway to the western part of Indonesia. About 60% of the economy in North Sumatra is backed by trading, agriculture, and processing industries, including exports from its 4 million acres of palm oil plantations. The National Development Planning Agency listed Medan as one of the four main central cities in Indonesia, alongside Jakarta, Surabaya, and Makassar. In terms of population, it is the most populous city in Indonesia outside of the island of Java. Its population as of 2023 is approximately equal to the country of Moldova.
Robert Kuok Hock Nien, better known as Robert Kuok, is a Malaysian business magnate, investor and philanthropist based in Hong Kong since 1973. According to Forbes, his net worth is estimated at $11.8 billion as of April 2023, making him the wealthiest Malaysian citizen and 96th wealthiest person in the world. As of April 2023, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index 2023, Kuok has an estimated net worth of $17.7 billion, making him the 97th richest person in the world.
Pematangsiantar, and also known as the City of Pematangsiantar, is an independent city in North Sumatra Province of Indonesia, surrounded by, but not part of, the Simalungun Regency, making Pematangsiantar an enclave within Simalungun Regency. Pematangsiantar formerly had the status of a second-level district and was the administrative centre of the surrounding Regency, but in 1986 it was elevated to Kota (City) and separated from the Regency.
Eka Tjipta Widjaja, born Oei Ek Tjong, was an Indonesian businessman who founded the Sinar Mas Group, one of the largest conglomerates in Indonesia. After immigrating to Indonesia with his family when he was a child, Widjaja became a member of the PCC, traded copra in the mid-1950s, moved into the palm oil industry soon after, started a paper factory in the 1970s, and then entered financial services in the 1980s. At the time of his death, Sinar Mas had interests in paper, real estate, financial services, agribusiness, and telecom with holdings primarily in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, and China, and Widjaja was listed by Forbes as the third-richest person in Indonesia with an estimated net worth of US$8.6 billion.
Lee Shin Cheng was a Malaysian business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. Lee Shin Cheng headed IOI Corporation Berhad, better known as IOI Group, as its executive chairman. IOI is a conglomerate managing oil palm plantations, producing specialty fats and oleochemicals, and is developing properties in Malaysia, Indonesia, the United States, and Europe. The IOI refinery in Rotterdam, Netherlands is the largest palm oil refinery in Europe. IOI's oil palm plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia produce palm oil and palm kernel oil. These oils are made into specialty oils, metallic stearates and fats that are used in soaps, detergents, cosmetics and food additives. IOI Group is a leading real estate developer in Malaysia. Projects include townships, shopping malls, condominiums, office towers, and resorts.
Sukanto Tanoto, born Tan Kang Hoo is an Indonesian businessman primarily involved in resources-based manufacturing. After starting as a supplier of equipment and materials for the state-owned oil firm Pertamina, Tanoto moved into the forest industry in 1973. Tanoto's business interests are represented by the Royal Golden Eagle (RGE) group of companies, previously known as Raja Garuda Mas.
Wilmar International Limited is a Singaporean food processing and investment holding company with more than 300 subsidiary companies. Founded in 1991, it is one of Asia's leading agribusiness groups alongside the COFCO Group. It ranks amongst the largest listed companies by market capitalisation on the Singapore Exchange (SGX), being the second largest as of September 2010. It was ranked 211th in the Fortune Global 500 list in 2020. It was ranked 3rd in the World's Most Admired Company by Fortune in 2019.
Energy in Singapore is critically influenced by its strategic position in maritime Southeast Asia, nestled between Malaysia and the Singapore Strait, near essential maritime routes like the Straits of Malacca and the South China Sea. This location has established Singapore as a central hub for the global petroleum, petrochemical, and chemical industries, with Jurong Island serving as a key base for over 100 international companies in these sectors. The majority of Singapore's energy consumption is derived from petroleum and other liquids, accounting for 86% of its total energy use, while natural gas represents 13%, and coal and renewable resources make up the remaining 1%.
Royal Golden Eagle is a global integrated, resource-based industrial group, with businesses in paper, palm oil, viscose, construction and energy, property and asset management. Owned by Indonesian businessman Sukanto Tanoto, the group employs 80,000 people worldwide with assets exceeding US$35 billion.
Kuok Khoon Hong is a Singaporean business magnate, entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is the co-founder, chairman and CEO of Wilmar International, having built it into one of Asia's leading agribusiness groups, and the world's largest palm oil trader. He is also the co-founder, chairman of Yihai Kerry. He has an estimated net worth of US$3.7 billion as of Jan 2021.
PT Asiatic Persada is a palm oil firm from Jambi, Indonesia. It was founded in 1979. Its oil palm plantations spread over an area of approximately 270 square kilometres (100 sq mi). Wilmar International has sold PT Asiatic Persada due to its alleged involvement in land grabs. The forest of Bungku village was cleared for giant palm oil plantations of PT Asiatic Persada in the mid-1980s. In the following years, the company’s bulldozers illegally claimed a further 200 square kilometres (77 sq mi) of rain forest — an area about half the size of Berlin, including areas for which indigenous peoples held guaranteed land rights. Ganda Group, owned by Ganda Sitorus, the younger brother of Martua Sitorus, the co-founder of Wilmar International, bought PT Asiatic Persada in 2013. In the same year, the governor of Jambi urged officials to review PT Asiatic Persada’s license because of violations of the law. Copies of the letter were also sent to the Justice Ministry and the national police chief.
Musim Mas Group is an Indonesian food processing company operating globally in the palm oil industry, with a presence in 13 countries spanning Asia-Pacific, Europe, North America, and South America. The group owns a significant network of palm oil refineries and is involved in vegetable oil refining. Additionally, it manufactures consumer goods such as soap and cooking oil brands in Indonesia. The company employes 37,000 people and utilizes a logistics network that includes chemical and coastal tankers, barges, tugboats, and bulk installations at major ports in Indonesia and other strategic locations worldwide.
PPB Group Berhad is a Malaysian diversified conglomerate which engages in food production, agriculture, waste management, film distribution, property investment and development. PPB is also the single largest shareholder of Wilmar International, one of the leading palm oil producers and agribusiness companies in the world.
Ishak Charlie is an Indonesian entrepreneur. Has experience managing various types of companies, ranging from plastic industry, pulp & paper industry, palm oil, palm oil plantation and construction spread all over Indonesia for more than 35 years. GlobeAsia Magazine lists Ishak Charlie as one of the 150 richest people in Indonesia with PT. Arga Citra Kharisma.
The Golden Triangle of Jakarta, also referred to as the Medan Merdeka–Thamrin–Sudirman Axis or the Sudirman–Thamrin–Kuningan Axis, is a roughly triangular area in the center of Jakarta, Indonesia, extending from Central Jakarta to South Jakarta. Most of the city's tallest skyscrapers, office buildings and foreign embassies are located in the area. It is the main CBD of Jakarta.
TSH Resources Berhad is a holding company from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It primarily engages in cultivating, processing, and refining oil palm. Other operations include segment manufactures and sale of downstream wood products. Furthermore, it operates a forest management unit, it manufactures, sells, and trades cocoa products and generates and supplies electricity from biomass plants. Tan Aik Sim is its management director, Loh Toi Meei its chief financial officer and Tan Aik Yong its executive director. Its revenue is MYR 1.05bn, its net income MYR 70.57m and its number of employees 2.09k . It is active in Central Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, and West Sumatra in Indonesia and Sabah in Malaysia. It claims to have received a sustainable forest management license from the state government of Sabah to manage 300,000 acres of forest for 100 years. It supplies crude palm oil and palm kernel to Musim Mas. “Sustainable Palm Oil Transparency Toolkit” (SPOTT) ranks TSH Resources 24th of 25 among of the world’s largest publicly listed palm oil companies.
Bachtiar Karim is an Indonesian businessman and palm oil tycoon He is the chairman of Musim Mas, one of the world's leading palm oil conglomerates headquartered in Singapore. Karim was listed as Indonesia's #10 richest man, with a net-worth of $3.5B in 2021. He was also listed in Tatler as one of Asia's Most Influential in 2021
Sihar Pangihutan Hamonangan Sitorus Pane is an Indonesian politician and businessman who is a member of the House of Representatives of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, having served since 2019. He took part in the 2018 North Sumatra gubernatorial election as a vice-governor candidate to Djarot Saiful Hidayat.
Adani Wilmar Limited (AWL) is an Indian multinational food and beverage conglomerate based in Ahmedabad. The company was founded in 1999 as a joint venture between Adani Enterprises and Wilmar International. It is India's largest processor of palm oil. As of 2022, AWL operates 22 plants across 10 states in India and exports its products to the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia.
Yihai Kerry is a publicly listed food processing company that is the largest cooking oil processing company in China.
