Although Minister of Finance Lee Yuan-san (
"Without a healthy banking sector in place, Taiwan's economy will not be revived," said TSU Legislator Eric Wu (
Comparing the ongoing financial reforms to the human cardiovascular system, Hsieh Chin-ho (謝金河), president of Win-Win Weekly (今周刊), said that Lee's successor should follow through the reforms "without any bargaining, otherwise, Taiwan will be like an ailing patient with clogged veins."
Ever since Lee's resignation last week, local markets has speculated that the DPP administration's financial reforms would slow.
But the outgoing minister yesterday defended his policies, saying a misunderstanding triggered a rift between regulators and the private sector.
"I have no regrets and have done all that needs to be done," Lee told reporters while returning to his office to pack yesterday morning on the first day of an unscheduled one-week leave.
Lee, however, offered no opinion on the premier's possible choice for his replacement.
The new minister should be equipped with not only financial expertise, but also seasoned political skills to be capable of handling pressure and opposition, Hsieh said.
Local Chinese-language media is speculating that Lin Tzong-yeong (
The three, however, denied the speculation yesterday.
While praising Lee's contribution to financial reforms, Hsieh added that both former vice finance ministers Lin and Chen are suitable choices given their experience in financial and political affairs.
Also stressing the importance of reforms, William Bryson, chairman of the capital markets committee at the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei, said yesterday that, a banker should take up the position of finance chief, since a major focus will be on cleaning up the banking sector's huge non-performing loan (NPL) mess.
While Taiwan is currently a hot NPL market in Asia, Bryson said that China's NPL market -- estimated at over US$480 billion -- is also a potential target for investors.
Taiwan's total NPL market is valued at NT$1.43 trillion (US$42 billion) -- 10 times smaller than that of China's.
"Because if the China market ever opens up, that will be a distraction to investors who are bidding on auctions here in Taiwan. China may draw the same group of investors over," said Bryson, who is also a legal consultant at Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue (眾達法律事務所).
In addition to financial and political clout, Huang Da-yeh (
If the Financial Supervisory Board can be set up soon, the task of financial reforms should be left to the board's chairman while the finance minister should only be charged with governmental budgeting and financing tasks, he said.
RUN IT BACK: A succesful first project working with hyperscalers to design chips encouraged MediaTek to start a second project, aiming to hit stride in 2028 MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it is engaging a second hyperscaler to help design artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators used in data centers following a similar project expected to generate revenue streams soon. The first AI accelerator project is to bring in US$1 billion revenue next year and several billion US dollars more in 2027, MediaTek chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) told a virtual investor conference yesterday. The second AI accelerator project is expected to contribute to revenue beginning in 2028, Tsai said. MediaTek yesterday raised its revenue forecast for the global AI accelerator used
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
The Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data center projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically made artificial intelligence (AI) chips, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. In recent weeks, Chinese regulatory authorities have ordered such data centers that are less than 30 percent complete to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage would be decided on a case-by-case basis, the sources said. The move could represent one of China’s most aggressive steps yet to eliminate foreign technology from its critical infrastructure amid a
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