While China continues to produce many young self-made billionaires, showcasing its economic dynamism, observers have urged the creation of a more supportive environment, saying that innovation is still being held back.<\/p>\n
About 98 per cent of the super-rich in mainland China, with assets valued at US$1 billion or more, are relatively young first-generation entrepreneurs, reflecting the vitality and wealth-creation power of its economy, Swiss bank UBS said in a recent report.<\/p>\n
However, Beijing\u2019s tendency to strengthen state ownership and the lack of a loss-proof mechanism \u2013 which would shield innovative risk-takers from severe repercussions for failures \u2013 have curbed entrepreneurial vigour, according to some analysts.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe noticed that self-made billionaires constitute a very high proportion of China\u2019s wealthy individuals, indicating that the Chinese market remains a vibrant and dynamic engine for generating new wealth,\u201d said Marina Lui, the bank\u2019s head of China wealth management, at a news conference in Shanghai on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
She said new billionaires in China \u201ctend to be younger \u2013 typically in their 40s to 50s, in my observation \u2013 compared to those in other regions\u201d.<\/p>\n
UBS\u2019 annual billionaire report recorded 470 billionaires in mainland China this year. That was second only to the United States, which had 924, but those in China were generally younger, with smaller families.<\/p>\n