Forty years ago, 150 yuan ($63 then) was all the money Qunpei Tsering had to his name. Now, as the Tibet autonomous region's first billionaire, he has pledged to use his wealth to benefit the people living in the region.

The 61-year-old operates 12 companies in his native Xigaze prefecture, with interests in businesses as diverse as real estate, a highland barley wine factory and a local driving school. "I thought, what if one of them goes out of business? So I set up businesses in different fields," he says.

The conference room in his office has a wall full of bronze "model business" awards and banners from charities thanking him for his generosity. The windows offer views of one of Qunpei Tsering's successful hotels.

He talks about a 760-million-yuan ($122 million) investment in an agricultural base, money he casually mentions he has on hand, no loan required.

The fortune he has made from scratch is impressive, but Qunpei Tsering, who has only three years of schooling and speaks broken Mandarin, says: "Personally, I don't have a secret to success.

"But it no doubt has a lot to do with all the favorable policies and the reform and opening-up."

Government-led reforms have played a major part in his life since 1959, when serfs in the autonomous region were freed. Qunpei Tsering's parents were serf-herders. It was the first time they were given shelter and property - a small plot of land, 17 sheep and 2 yaks - of their own.

But with more than 10 mouths to feed, the family still struggled. At the age of 18, Qunpei Tsering decided to earn his own living and became a carpenter, starting out with 150 yuan for materials.

By the early 1980s, he sensed the winds of change.

"It is thanks to the opening-up policy. Without it, we could never have dreamed of doing what we have accomplished," he says. "It gave us the courage."

Until that point, Xigaze residents were used to rationing their needs and rarely stepped out of their comfort zone. Together with a dozen other villagers, Qunpei Tsering went into the construction business, full of expectations of a boom. They were so motivated that they sometimes carried the materials on their own backs to save time and money.

In his native Rinbung county, Qunpei Tsering's workers made the county's first cement buildings, a middle school.

When he had saved 30,000 yuan, he splurged on a fancy Jiefang truck. "It was the first time I spent that much and I felt rich," he says.

Gradually, the private business grew from building houses to highways to becoming a conglomerate.

In 2005, he became the first person in the autonomous region to make more than 100 million yuan. His businesses made more than 100 million yuan last year, employing some 1,600 people, the majority local Tibetans.

Puqiong, a senior technical worker, is one of Qunpei Tsering's staff members. "I'm earning around 10,000 yuan a month," he says. "All thanks to the company that hired me in a time of distress."

"I've always believed that small personal dreams add up to bigger ones," Qunpei Tsering says. "Unless the staff are happy with what they have got, the company will not advance."

It's this philosophy that has led him to contribute money to a project to build houses for local villagers.

"For now, the agricultural base is all that I have in mind, it's my dream," he says. "Tibet has so many specialties that should be produced in scale. Besides, that means 10,000 more jobs for people.

"For the next 20 years, I'll work on nothing else but that."

sunye@chinadaily.com.cn