Kumaratunga ‘more powerful’ than Aung San Suu Kyi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 August 2004, 14:14 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s President Chandrika Kumaratunga was ranked 44th in a list of the world’s hundred most powerful women. The list, produced by the business magazine Forbes, is headed by US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

Sonia Gandhi, President, Congress Party was ranked third and Wu Yi, Vice Premier, former Vice Mayor of Beijing second.

Ms. Megawati Sukarnoputri, President of Indonesia is eighth. and Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Begum Khaleda Zia, is fourteenth.

President Kumaratunga, aged 59, is preceded by Helen Clark, Prime Minister of New Zealand, who is ranked 43rd and followed by Nobel Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, ranked 45th.

British Premier Tony Blair’s wife, Cherie Blair is ranked twelfth whilst former British leader Margaret Thatcher is 21st, followed by Queen Elizabeth II, who is 22nd.

Indra Nooyi, President and Chief Financial Officer of PepsiCo is 29th and Anne Mulcahy, Chair and Chief Executive of Xerox, is 42nd.