Stricter regulations on the qualifications for independent board members of listed companies should be added to the Securities and Exchange Law (
But pundits yesterday warned that the yet-to-be-draft regulations could only provide pro forma rules, meaning that it would be entirely up to corporate owners whether they would comply with the rules.
Speaking at a seminar on Monday, Chen said the TSE is drafting revisions to the Securities and Exchange Law requiring listed companies to hire a set number of independent board members and supervisors.
The final version will then be submitted to the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC,
Chen, however, reportedly expressed concern over the lack of qualified individuals in the local talent pool to serve as independent board members in the nation's over 1,000 listed firms.
Emphasizing the importance of professionalism and autonomy, Chen also said that the draft revisions will stipulate that all independent board members of listed companies should have at least five-years experience in business management, legal or financial matters.
Independent board members won't be allowed to serve on the board at over five companies at the same time, he said.
Unlike conventional board mem-bers, independent members are not stockholders, but they are hired by corporate leaders to take play the roles of auditor and overseer.
Adding more independent board members is an important commercial topic after a series of corporate scandals such as Worldcom and Enron, rocked the US economic outlook and stock investor confidence.
Despite the TSE's regulatory efforts to strengthen corporate restructuring, Chu Hau-min (朱浩民), a finance professor at National Chengchi University, yesterday said that the success of the new rules lies with corporate owners since most of them are opposed to hiring and working with independent board members, who may not share their management philosophies and end up interfering with corporate management.
"Therefore, it'll be totally up to corporate chiefs whether they'll allow independent board member to give honest opinions or adopt their professional advice," Chu said.
Chu serves as an independent board member of Wah Lee Industrial Corp (
Citing the US corporate model, Morris Chang (
But Chu said that independent members should not exceed a maximum one-third of the total board since no corporate owners will sit back and let outsiders make up a decisive majority.
Chu added the legislature will be the biggest hurdle to the passage of the draft laws since many lawmakers enjoy moonlighting as board members for local corporations.
In February the SFC enacted an administrative order requiring newly listed companies to hire at least two independent board members and one independent supervisor.
But Lawrence Liu (
"Playing bad cops in companies, supervisors gradually serve an inefficient goal since potential corporate fraud is intentionally kept information out of their reach," Liu said, adding two to three professional independent board members should be able to help corporations stay on the right track.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the