Quick Facts
Biography
Tan Yu (Chinese: 鄭周敏, April 5 1927 – 12 March 2002) was a Chinese philanthropist and businessman who founded the Asiaworld Internationale Groupand established the KTTI Foundation, which provided scholarships to and supported the education of thousands of young students. In 1997, Forbes estimated his net worth to be about $7 billion. He was placed amongst the top 10 in the world on the Forbes List of World Billionaires 1997,making him the wealthiest man in the Philippines. Some projects were affected by the 1997 Financial Crisis.
Early life
Originally from Fujian province in China, Yu and his family moved to the Philippines at a young age. He began making a living in Camarines Norte through selling bread buns in the streets and doing some fishing. He graduated from University of St. La Salle in Bacolod City, and in 1997, received an honorary doctorate of science degree from the New Jersey Institute of Technology. By the age of 18, he had established a successful textile business.
Business Interests
During his lifetime, he planned to develop Fuga and Barit, two northernmost islands in the Philippines, into a resort in the Pacific for businessmen and tourists. Under the company Asiaworld, he possessed more land in the Philippines than the government, as well as possessing overseas assets in the form of property, hotels and banks.
His key holdings included the Asiaworld Plaza Hotel in Taiwan, over 200 Hectares of prime land in Manila Bay and the Islands of Fuga and Barit.
Personal life and death
Tan Yu died of heart failure in Houston, Texas, in 2002 at the age of 75. Jose de Venecia, the Speaker of the House of Representatives in the Philippines, commended his achievements as a great businessman and as a philanthropist, for providing jobs to a number of Philippine people. He was posthumously honored with the Dr. Jose P. Rizal Award for Excellence.
His five children continue to live in the Philippines, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.
In the Story Arc 2078 edition of the Philippines comic strip series Pugad Baboy, the Ninoy Aquino International Airport was named as Tan Yu International Airport (TYIA).