Developing Country Billionaire and Education Champion

Bill Gates may be famous for his massive philanthropy activities and his Giving Pledge movement, which encourages billionaires to provide chunks of their wealth for education. However, many of American billionaires (even from Giving Pledge movement) still do not put priorities on developing and underdeveloped countries. Sukanto Tanoto, a palm oil and pulp magnate from Indonesia, is recognized as one of few billionaires from developing country that does philanthropy projects in quite massive scale, especially in education.

Together with his wife, Tinah Bingei, they run Tanoto Foundation, which is an institution that mainly works in the field of education. They are now considered as representatives from Indonesia in the list of billionaires from developing countries that become education champions.

Roles of Billionaires from Developing Countries

Education is a problem in developing countries, since there are still many children who do not get even the most basic education. Therefore, the roles of billionaires, especially those who own private companies, are very important. Many developing countries do not spend much budget from their GDP for education as much as developed countries, so private billionaires have positive roles in filling the budget gap left by the government. This is why many billionaires are also heavily involved in philanthropy projects, although some prefer to be private about it.

Sukanto Tanoto and his wife are recognized as the most prominent billionaire with education oriented philanthropy projects from Indonesia. They run Tanoto Foundation together with their children, and so far have awarded 1,000 scholarships, built many schools and educational facilities, and trained more than 1,300 teachers, and those are in Indonesia alone. Since Sukanto’s operational areas are also in Singapore and China, he also provides educational supports for students in several areas in those countries.

Billionaires as Candidates for Global Education Champions

Billionaires can have great roles in education, especially since even just 1% of their entire wealth can really help for education projects such as library building or scholarships for basic educations. Unfortunately, most billionaires only contribute in more localized projects, and many are quiet secretive about their projects since philanthropy activities are considered by many as private matters. No billionaire has risen as the global education champion, and American billionaires (which counted as the most in numbers) tend to help locally.

The rising amounts of developing countries billionaires like Sukanto Tanoto are expected to bring change in determining the budget for education in a developing country.