The 1000 Biggest Companies The 1000 1-50 51-100 101-150 151-200 201-250 251-300 301-350 351-400 451-500 501-550 551-600 601-650 651-700 701-750 751-800 801-850 851-900 901-950 951-1000

O V E R V I E W
Where Countries Stand in the 1000
Japan and Taiwan boost their numbers as South Korea retreats
The beginnings of economic recovery in Asia, including Japan, and the yen's strengthening through much of 1999 propelled 16 more Japanese companies into The Asiaweek 1000. The other big gainer is Taiwan, which added 10 enterprises. Dropping out were 11 companies from South Korea, six from China, and three each from Australia and Hong Kong. But get this: despite Japan's increased representation, its share of total employees fell to 55% from 62% last year. That is partly due to restructuring layoffs.

Country	No. of companies	Sales		Net Profit		Assets		Equity		Employees
		$ billions	% share	$b.	% share	% share	$b.	$b.	% share	000s	% share
Japan	696	4,180.80	77.30%	25.1	27.60%	4,492.60	71.70%	1,147.90	62.00%	8,119	55.50%
Australia	70	231.8	4.30%	12.7	14.00%	249.7	4.00%	103.6	5.60%	977	6.70%
South Korea	59	359.8	6.70%	-7.4	—	399.9	6.40%	123.1	6.60%	548	3.70%
Taiwan	37	90.9	1.70%	7.8	8.60%	139.3	2.20%	78.1	4.20%	281	1.90%
Singapore	34	103.5	1.90%	5.9	6.50%	117.8	1.90%	37.6	2.00%	142	1.00%
China	25	191.2	3.50%	8.1	9.00%	415.8	6.60%	164.3	8.90%	3,196	21.90%
Hong Kong	18	59.4	1.10%	21.3	23.50%	169.6	2.70%	97.7	5.30%	441	3.00%
India	20	76.6	1.40%	4.6	5.10%	74.6	1.20%	33.7	1.80%	388	2.70%
Malaysia	11	36.3	0.70%	4	4.40%	77.3	1.20%	25.8	1.40%	139	1.00%
Thailand	10	23.6	0.40%	-0.5	—	36.8	0.60%	11.1	0.60%	141	1.00%
Philippines	7	12.4	0.20%	0.3	0.30%	37.2	0.60%	5.4	0.30%	35	0.20%
Indonesia	6	25.6	0.50%	-0.2	—	31.2	0.50%	11.7	0.60%	151	1.00%
New Zealand	6	16	0.30%	0.8	0.90%	25.9	0.40%	11.2	0.60%	54	0.40%
Pakistan	1	1.3	0.02%	0.1	0.10%	0.5	0.01%	0.2	0.01%	3	0.02%
Total	1,000	5,409.20	100%	90.7	100%	6,268.40	100%	1,851.50	100%	14,616	100%