THE highest paid group of executives in the country turns out to have come from an unlikely source, the government-owned AIDC Ltd - it has nine executives on salaries in excess of $700,000 including three paid more than $1 million.

That group of AIDC executives does not include the former managing director, Mr Gerry Van Der Merwe, who was paid $1.8 million in the 11 months to May this year before he left for the job of managing director at State Bank of NSW.