Chinese ‘billionaire’ investing in Belarus is missing from Forbes rankings. Why?

Chinese billionaire Wang Enpei plans to implement Cars for Public Use project, almost all Belarusian mass media reported last week. The head of the Guangzhou Xinjinlai Import and Export Trade company is also set to sign deals with Belarusian dairy and meat-packing enterprises.

Euroradio tried learning more about this Chinese billionaire in Forbes but… there is no Wang Enpei in Forbes rankings.

The Chinese investor is ready to cooperate with a poultry factory in Viciebsk, the enterprise confirmed. Even the volume of delivery has been decided – 10 containers (more than 250 tons of the factory’s products).

An agreement with Wang Enpei’s company has already been concluded, closed corporation Dairy and Meat Company told Euroradio. Yet, they refused to comment on details.

Euroradio decided to search for information about Wang Enpei on the web. We have found nothing in English. If you search in Chinese, you will only find… BELTA’s articles and a profile at qichacha.com. It is a Chinese website where you can check and search for companies, legal entities and shareholders.

We found the company Guangzhou Xinjinlai Import and Export Trade on this website. However, some Wang Enhua (not Wang Enpei) is its legal representative. The company was registered in November 2017.

The question naturally arises: are they two different persons, or did one of the websites misspell the name? Anyway, why is there no ‘billionaire Wang Enpei’ in Forbes ranks?

We asked the National Investment and Privatisation Agency that invited the billionaire to Belarus about this issue.

“You see, it is very simple. We are also looking through Forbes ranks and using our own sources to check everything, deputy director of the investment department Mihail Dashuk said. “He did not come out of nowhere; he came by means of the General Consulate in Guangzhou. In any case, all the information was checked.”  

Wang Enpei’s assets are considerable, the representative of the National Investment and Privatisation Agency said. The businessman owns money in logistics, ports and in a number of companies.

Euroradio: Is Wang Enpei a real billionaire?

Mihail Dashuk: Well, according to the information presented by our Embassy, he is.

Euroradio: Yet, his company was registered only at the end of 2017…

Mihail Dashuk: Yes, this is true. He registered the company especially for cooperation with Belarus.

Euroradio: Why does the website of the company say that the CEO is some other person?

Mihail Dashuk: He may be the owner and another person may be the CEO. For instance, they have a car sharing company in Guangzhou and he owns of a lot of its shares.

Euroradio: Still, why is he missing from Forbes ranks?

Mihail Dashuk: Oh, well… I cannot discuss it over the phone. Maybe Forbes does not take some information into account.

Euroradio: Does it mean that he may be doing some underground business?

Mihail Dashuk: No, I did not say it.

Chinese billionaire Wang Enpei would like to create a car rental system in Belarus. The project’s name is “Cars for Public Use”. It is based on the experience of a similar system functioning in China. All the rental operations (ordering a car, information services and payments) can be performed with the help of a mobile application. Tourists, state and private organizations and private individuals are expected to become the main users of the service.

The idea is good but it needs to be finished off, the representative of the National Investment and Privatization Agency said.

“This is still an early stage. However, Wang Enpei said that we should see some results by the end of the year,” Dashuk noted.