Despite the financial difficulties of its biggest shareholder, Evertransit International Development Corp (
Evertransit, the builder of the proposed transit link, which is slated to begin operations in 2008, said its shareholders' meeting in early July agreed to raise its paid-in capital from the current NT$2.6 billion to NT$8 billion by year's end and to NT$25 billion by the end of next year, when construction begins.
"Evertransit is confident of facilitating the contract's final draft next week and inking it with the government by year's end," said Roger Sun (
"We're financially viable to continue the project," Sun told the Taipei Times yesterday afternoon after attending a negotiating session with the Bureau of Taiwan High Speed Rail (
He said that the only unsolved dispute between the company and the government is whether Evertransit is required to secure a fund of NT$32.5 billion -- 25 percent of its NT$130 budget slated for land acquisition.
He said he is optimistic that both parties' legal experts will come up with a solution before Aug. 9, so as to complete the contract's final draft.
With a fixed construction fee of NT$80 billion, Evertransit yesterday was accused of hiking its slated costs for land acquisition from NT$41 billion to NT$130 billion, driving up the total cost from NT$120 billion to NT$230 billion.
In response, Sun explained that the total cost for land acquisition remains the same except for the change of cash flow, since many landlords now prefer cash in hand to new shares of land after re-zoning is completed.
Sun is also optimistic that the price of land acquired along the rail's route will rise to the benefit of the company after the project is completed.
Respecting due process, Vice Minister of Transportation and Communications Tsai Tuei (
Quoting Minister Lin Ling-san (
The ministry had previously threatened to award the project to the No. 2 bidder, BES Engineering Corp (中華工程), or to re-open the bidding, if Evertransit fails to secure the necessary financial support.
Local media, however, yesterday reported that BES Engineering may no longer be interested in taking over the project due to problems financing the transit link..
But a high-ranking manager of the company, who refused to be identified, yesterday told the Taipei Times that BES Engineering remains interested in taking over.
"Our original blueprint may not work now, so we do need to re-evaluate the project before making a decision," the source said.
Upon completion, the 37km rail system will have 19 stations, including three along a branch line to Linkou, with tickets costing around NT$120 per person.
A commuting time of 35 minutes from the Hsimenting MRT station in downtown Taipei to the airport is planned.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to