Chung Thye Phin

Chung Thye Phin was a wealthy Malayan tin miner and rubber planter of Hakka ancestry who was raised on the island of Penang in the state of the same name in Malaysia, known at that time as British Malaya. He pioneered the cultivation of Roselle for the production of Roselle fiber rope and twine, his initial effort including the Sweet Kamiri Estate in Sungei Siput. He was a member of the Perak Advisory Board and the last Kapitan China of Perak and Malaya. At the time of his death he was said to have been the wealthiest man in Penang.

His father Chung Keng Quee was a millionaire philanthropist and known as an innovator in the mining of tin. He was involved in many other industries including farming, pawnbroking and logging. Chung Thye Phin was initiated into his father’s business and later he started a number of tin mines of his own, including a deep-shaft mine at Tronoh or Teronoh, adjoining the famous mine of the same name, and the hydraulic mine at Batu Tugoh. Tronoh was the centre of the mining field containing the mine of Chung Thye Phin's Tronoh Mines Company Ltd.

His open-cast mines were operated on the most modern system in his time. He had the distinction of being the first Chinese miner to have introduced the latest appliances on the mines, under the supervision of a European engineer.

Together with Ho Man and Foo Choong Nyit, Chung Thye Phin co-founded the Toh Allang Chinese Tin Company in Perak, the first Chinese limited liability company, in 1925. He was also a founder and member of the Board of Directors of the Eastern Smelting Company (1907), Ltd. The company appeared to be doing well and at its first ordinary general meeting in October that year a 5 per cent dividend was declared based on the good performance of the prior six months work. Problems arose the following year and by the end of it its works manager had resigned, accusing the managing director and other directors of financial mismanagement. By March 1911 it had been decided to sell off the business to a London company.

He also had vast interests in some of the Government revenue farm monopolies. On 2, July 1903, the public tenders were declared open for the running of the Kedah and Penang Opium Farms. There were eight tenders. The highest tender was made by Chung Thye Phin for the Penang farm.

Chung Thye Phin was a committee member of the Penang Chinese Chamber of Commerce (which was founded in June 1903 and before that served as a President of the Penang Chinese Town Hall established in 1881. At one time he even led the Penang Chinese Literary Association. Despite his many business concerns, Chung Thye Phin evinced a lively interest in various philanthropic works, foreign famine funds and local charities.