Tomy Winata

Tomy Winata (pronounced [ˈtomi wiˈnata] and sometimes misspelled as Tommy Winata); born Guo Shuo Feng 郭說鋒 on 23 July 1958; is an Indonesian businessman with interests in banking, property, gambling and infrastructure, whose wealth comes from his business deals for the Indonesian Military.[1][2] His philanthropic interests include the environment,[3][4] particularly the Tambling Wildlife Nature Conservation a 45,000 hectare forest, endangered wildlife and sea conservation area, located in southern Sumatra.

Tomy Winata
Born
Guo Shuo Feng 郭說鋒

(1958-07-23) July 23, 1958
Jakarta, Indonesia
NationalityIndonesian
OccupationEntrepreneur, Philanthropist
Known forOwner and Chairman of Artha Graha Group Founder of Artha Graha Care Foundation (Artha Graha Peduli Foundation)

He is the son of an automobile spare parts trader and left school in the seventh grade upon which he sold ice pops to support his family. According to The Washington Post, he then "rose from a car washer and office boy to become one of the nation's richest men". In 2006, he was listed as #35 on a Forbes list of "the 40 richest men in Indonesia".[5]

Business career

Winata's business empire has been developed under the Artha Graha Group and Artha Graha Network. In 1988, he worked with the Indonesian Army Foundation to rescue a troubled local bank, Bank Propelat, and subsequently changed its name to Bank Artha Graha. In mid-1997, in cooperation with Bank Indonesia he bailed out Bank Arta Prima, which was then merged with Bank Artha Graha. In 2003, Artha Graha Group took over Bank Inter-pacific, Tbk (a publicly listed company). In 2005, Bank Inter-pacific, Tbk acquired Bank Artha Graha becoming Bank Artha Graha Internasional, Tbk (INPC.JK).

Winata is involved in the property sector through PT Jakarta International Hotels and Development, Tbk (JIHD.JK, a publicly listed company), which owns Borobudur Hotel in Central Jakarta, and PT Danayasa Arthatama, Tbk (SCBD.JK, a publicly listed company), which owns the Sudirman Central Business District (SCBD) in the heart of Jakarta.[6] SCBD includes the Indonesian Stock Exchange Building. Winata plans to build the Signature Tower Building-Jakarta, a 111-storey skyscraper, which will be the fifth tallest building in the world, in the center of the SCBD. He has said the mega-project is part of his mission to show the world that "Indonesia can".[7] His vision is to make SCBD the "Manhattan of Indonesia".[8][9]

He is active in the infrastructure sector, through the company PT Bangungraha Sejahtera Mulia, which obtained support from the governors of Banten and Lampung provinces to be the lead investor for the Sunda Strait Bridge[10][11] project which, if it proceeds, will be the largest single infrastructure project ever undertaken in Indonesia.[12] Based on Indonesian Presidential Regulation Number 86, dated 2 December 2011, the Lampung-Banten consortium with PT Bangungraha Sejahtera Mulia was appointed to be the Project Initiator to work on a feasibility study for the Sunda Strait Bridge Project and Strategic Area Development.[13] Following the Presidential Regulation, Banten and Lampung provinces together with PT Bangun Sejahtera Mulia established a joint venture company called PT Graha Banten Lampung Sejahtera (GBLS) to conduct the Sunda Strait feasibility study. Based on its pre-feasibility study, Sunda Strait Project construction cost was estimated around US$10 billion and will take around 8 to 10 years to develop.[14]

The Sunda Strait Bridge Project [15] has progressed from an "impossible dream" in 2002 to becoming "almost a possible reality" in 2012, but in 2014 new president Joko Widodo shelved the project.[16]

Winata also has business ventures outside of Indonesia, including in Timor Leste, where he was given approval in secret to build a hotel and shopping complex on government-owned land without having to submit his bid to a tendering process.[1][17]

Besides his legal operations, Tomy is also a member of the so-called "nine dragons", a group comprising the major individuals behind Jakarta's gambling industry, despite the practice being banned in Indonesia.[18]

Aside from his businesses, Winata has established a social non-profit foundation called Artha Graha Peduli Foundation (AG Peduli Foundation),[19] which has five major social activities: provision of emergency relief to victims of natural disasters in Indonesia and abroad; humanitarian programs in food resilience, education and health; programs to save the environment; people empowerment through Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs); and provision of legal assistance for the underprivileged.

Environmentalism

Winata runs a rescue center for the critically endangered Sumatran tiger in[20] Tambling Wildlife Nature Conservation, a park in Lampung Province, Sumatra. Here he tries to reintroduce "conflict tigers"—tigers that have attacked or killed humans—into the wild.[21] TWNC has released five Sumatran tigers back to the TWNC forest,[22] and was also able to release other protected wildlife and animals such as crocodiles and turtles. In addition to 45,000 hectares of forest, TWNC includes 14,500 hectares of sea conservation area.[23]

Winata has cooperated with the Indonesian Narcotics Agency (Badan Narkotika Nasional-BNN) to organize a drug rehabilitation [24] program in TWNC.[25][26] The program combines rehab and environmental conservation, encouraging former drug users to re-establish their lives and livelihoods through work in TWNC conservation and eco-tourism. This program was presented by Winata at the UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) 2013 Annual Meeting in Vienna, Austria.[27] UNODC's Executive Director, Yuri Fedotov, expressed appreciation to Winata for the TWNC program, and said UNODC will encourage other countries to visit Tambling to study its drug rehabilitation program.

Cristiano Ronaldo becomes ambassador for Mangrove Care Forum Bali

In March 2013, in Madrid, Spain, Winata together with the Bali Mangrove Care Forum appointed "Cristiano Ronaldo" (CR7), the top Real Madrid soccer player, to be the Ambassador of Mangroves.[28][29] Winata and Ronaldo agreed to conserve existing mangroves and plant new ones, especially in Bali surrounding areas.[30]

The Press

In a high-profile case against the news magazine Tempo following an article's "Ada Tomy in Tenebang?" (Is there Tomy in Tanah Abang ?) published in the March 3, 2003 issue of Tempo,[31] Tempo editor-in-chief Bambang Harymurti was found guilty.[1]

The Central Jakarta District Court ordered Tempo magazine to publicly apologize and to pay a fine of 500 million rupiah (US$59,000). Tomy filed libel charges against PT Tempo Inti Media; chief editor Bambang Harymurti; chief deputy editor Toriq Hadad; reporters Ahmad Taufik, Bernarda Rurit, and Cahyo Junaidi; publisher Fikri Jufri and corporate director Zulkifli Lubis, according to a Tempo report.[32] The presiding judge stated that, "Tempo failed to find the truth by covering both sides before publishing the article," said a report in The Jakarta Post. However, this conviction was later overturned on appeal.[1]

In another high-profile case, in the provision of travellers cheques used in 2004 to bribe Indonesian politicians to elect Miranda Swaray Goeltom as Senior Deputy Governor in the Indonesian central bank, Bank Indonesia, has been widely reported in the Indonesian media.[33] Miranda said he did not know the owner of Bank Artha Graha. "Who owns it?" she told Tempo last Friday. "I do not know."[34]

References
  1. Murdoch, Lindsay; Hyland, Tom (3 May 2009). "Dili tycoon deal triggers alarm". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 14 June 2016.
  2. "Tommy Winata: Artha Group Boss" (in Indonesian). Tokoh Indonesia. Retrieved 2 June 2011.
  3. Wawancara Khusus CEO TWNC: Kisah Tomy Winata, Harimau dan Lingkungan Hidup, detik.com, 18 December 2012.
  4. Ketika TW Mendukung Konservasi Harimau, beritalingkungan.com, 29 January 2013.
  5. "Indonesia's 40 Richest: #35 Tomy Winata". Forbes. 7 September 2006. Retrieved 2 June 2011.
  6. "Profil" (in Indonesian). SCDB Company Profile. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
  7. Tomy Winata: Indonesia Jadi Pemain Penting Dunia Archived 2013-10-17 at the Wayback Machine, antarasumbar.com, 23 April 2013.
  8. Jakarta Can Be a 'New Manhattan': Tomy Winata' Archived 2013-04-24 at the Wayback Machine, The Jakarta Post, 22 April 2013.
  9. Jakarta Bisa Jadi Kota Yang Diperhitungkan Dunia Archived 2013-10-17 at the Wayback Machine, jurnas.com, 22 April 2013.
  10. Pengusaha Nasional Dukung Pembangunan Jembatan Selat Sunda, Rakyat Merdeka Online, 23 April 2013.
  11. Wawancara CNBC 'Tomy Winata: Indonesia Bisa Buat Sejarah', Suara Pembaruan Online, 20 April 2013.
  12. "Tomy Winata Didukung Gubernur Banten dan Lampung". Kompas (in Indonesian). 31 August 2009. Retrieved 2 June 2011.
  13. Tomy Winata: Ground Breaking JSS Sangat Sulit Dilakukan Tahun 2014, Rakyat Merdeka Online, 23 April 2013.
  14. "Consortium Teams Up with China to Build Sunda Strait Bridge". Tempo. 2 November 2010. Retrieved 2 June 2011.
  15. The Jakarta Post (5 July 2012). "US bank eyes Sunda Strait Bridge project". The Jakarta Post.
  16. Sambijantoro, Satria (3 November 2014). "No more Sunda Strait Bridge plan". The Jakarta Post. Retrieved 5 July 2017. See also "New Government Will Not Prioritize Sunda Strait Bridge Project". Global Indonesian Voices. 2 November 2014. Retrieved 5 July 2017.
  17. Joe Cochrane (25 April 2011). "The land that Indonesia lost". The Jakarta Globe. Archived from the original on 3 June 2011. Retrieved 2 June 2011.
  18. Danang Widoyoko; Irfan Muktiono; Adnan Topan Husodo; Barly Harliem Noe; Agung Wijaya, Bisnis Militer Mencari Legitimasi (The Military's Business Seeks Legitimacy (PDF) (in Indonesian), Indonesia Corruption Watch, retrieved 16 June 2016
  19. Tomy Winata: Bukan Kerajaan Bisnis Tapi Membangun Masyarakat dan Lingkungan, BeritaSatu.com, 20 April 2013.
  20. "Trying to Save Wild Tigers by Rehabilitating Them". The New York Times. 21 April 2010.
  21. Norimitsu Onishi (25 April 2010). "Indonesian tycoon Tomy Winata bids to save Sumatran tigers by release back into the wild". Scotland on Sunday. Retrieved 2 June 2011.
  22. Oyos Saroso H.N. (5 June 2009). "Three more tigers to be released in Tambling forest". The Jakarta Post.
  23. Kylie Minogue Ketakutan di Depan Gerbang Harimau', KapanLagi.com, 5 July 2011.
  24. UNODC (8 December 2012). "For an ecology of the mind: blending drug rehab with nature conservation in Sumatra". UNODC.
  25. BNN Gandeng Tomy Winata Archived 2013-06-16 at Archive.today, Bisnis.com, 17 February 2013.
  26. Rehabilitasi Pecandu Narkoba: BNN Gandeng Tomy Winata, halobet.net(Bisnis Indonesia), 17 February 2013.
  27. Tomy Winata Paparkan TWNC di Wina, Investor Daily, 18 March 2013.
  28. Ronaldo ambassador for mangrove, The Jakarta Post, 17 March 2013.
  29. Cristiano Ronaldo Jadi Duta Pelestarian Mangrove di Indonesia, detik.com, 11 March 2013.
  30. CR7 to Help Protect Bali Mangrove, Jakarta Globe, 13 March 2013.
  31. Ellen Nakashima (29 April 2004). "Magazine Case Tests Indonesian Press Freedom". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2 June 2011.
  32. "Magazine found guilty of libel". cpj.org. Retrieved March 18, 2004.
  33. "Indonesia's Judicial Flying Circus". Asia Sentinel. 12 May 2011. Retrieved 2 June 2011.
  34. "Dekat dengan Bos Artha Graha? Ini Kata Miranda". nasional.tempo.co. Tempo.co. Retrieved 30 January 2012.
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