REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - Sudono Salim or also known as Liem Sioe Liong, an Indonesian tycoon, died in his 96 years in Singapore on Sunday. Born on September 10, 1915, Salim is the founder of Salim Group. 

Salim Group includes Indofood, Indomobil, Indocement, Indosiar, BCA, Indomaret, Indomarco, and many other companies. He was known as the close friend of Indonesian former President Soeharto. He recently lived in Singapore before he died. His companies are passed to his son Anthony Salim and his daughter in law Franciscus Welirang.

According to adrianliem.multiply.com, Liem Sioe Liong was born in Haikou, Fujian province in 1916. He was an avid learner with a stunning memory, and was enrolled in his village`s private school at age 7. 

Unfortunately, poverty put a stop to his schooling days and at 15, his family rented a shophouse for him in the village to run a stall selling noodle-soup. But then his stall was forced to shut down amidst the pandemonium of war, and in 1935, Liem`s father passed away, and the family burden fell upon the shoulders of his mother. 

The young Liem migrated from Fujian province in the 1920s, arriving in Indonesia with hardly a penny to his name. He was barely 20 when he reached Indonesia, and spent his initial days staying with an uncle, helping out at his uncle`s provision shop. However, the provision shop`s business was very thin, and finally, Liem decided to start his own hawker business selling coffee powder.

Later, he single-handedly established Indonesia`s largest corporate group: Indocement, Indofood as well as huge businesses in the Philippines, Thailand, Hong Kong and China. However, he was reluctant to publicly list some of his Indonesian companies, probably to avoid scrutiny. 

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