MOF targets insurance fraud
The Ministry of Finance will set up an insurance-crime prevention center to cope with the growing number of fraudulent insurance claims, a senior official said yesterday.
Vice Minister of Finance Susan Chang (張秀蓮) made the remarks at a meeting of the legislature's Budget and Final Accounts Committee.
Chang said the ministry has decided to earmark money from its NT$3.5 billion Insurance Industry Development Fund to form an insurance-crime-prevention center.
The center will collaborate with insurers and law enforcement authorities to intercept fraudulent claims, Chang said.
CAL, Alitalia ink pact
China Airlines Co (華航), and Italy's flagship airline, Alitalia, can sell seats on each other's flights on the Taipei-Bangkok-Rome route under a code-sharing agreement the began Monday, China Airlines said yesterday in a statement.
The service will be offered on three weekly flights and might increase to four flights per week beginning Nov. 17 pending government approval, the airline said.
Code-sharing agreements are part of a trend toward greater cooperation among airlines in the last decade. The alliances allow airlines to reach more places without flying more planes and to offer reciprocal benefits.
``Through the cooperation, Alitalia can expand its network and enter the Taiwanese market,'' the statement said. ``At the same time, China Airlines can increase its traffic of European passengers to Taiwan and Southeast Asia."
Failed bank's assets to be sold
The government will auction off the remaining operations, assets and liabilities of the failed Kaohsiung Business Bank (高雄企銀), after selling its bad loans for NT$8.23 (US$238 million).
Interested bidders should submit offers with a NT$100 million deposit on or before Dec. 19, the Ministry of Finance's Central Deposit Insurance Corp (中央存保) said in an announcement posted on its Web site.
The assets include 60 branches and subsidiaries.
The Texas-based Lone Star Funds bought the bank's bad loans in June, paying less than two-fifths of the face value of the loans.
MediaTek profits expected
MediaTek Inc (聯發科技), the world's largest maker of chips for DVD players, may say third-quarter profit rose by 54 percent after it gained market share from rivals.
The company will likely say net income rose to NT$4 billion (US$118 million) from NT$2.6 billion a year ago, based on the median estimate of five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Sales rose 58 percent to NT$10.6 billion from NT$6.7 billion. MediaTek will post results on Thursday.
Law symposium opens
A two-day symposium on competition policy and law opens in Taipei today with 200 academics and experts from Taiwan, Japan, Russia, France, the US and nine other countries.
Taiwan became an observer of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) competition committee on Jan. 1, 2002.
Discussions at the meeting will center on the future development of competition framework, especially in the fields of globalization, technological innovation and financial reform.
NT dollar gains ground
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded higher against its US counterpart, rising NT$0.028 to close at NT$33.992 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$273 million.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday reported record sales for the first quarter, which analysts attributed to solid demand for emerging technologies. Consolidated revenue totaled NT$592.64 billion (US$18.51 billion) in the January-to-March period, up 16.5 percent from a year earlier, but down 5.26 percent from the previous quarter, TSMC said in a statement. The first-quarter revenue beat analysts’ average projection of NT$579.5 billion, Bloomberg News reported. That performance lends weight to expectations that the world’s most valuable chipmaker would return to solid growth this year after weathering a post-COVID-19-pandemic cratering of smartphone and computer sales. TSMC is budgeting
HUALIEN BRANCH: The company had been planning to rebuild the hotel before it was damaged in the quake and vowed to give affected employees the option to transfer The owner of Chateau de Chine Hualien (花蓮翰品酒店) is planning to lay off 86 workers after shutting down the hotel due to damage it sustained in a powerful earthquake on Wednesday last week, the Ministry of Labor said yesterday. The hotel has submitted a layoff report to the Hualien County Government and expects to let 69 workers go this month and 17 next month, the ministry said. LDC Hotels & Resorts Group (雲朗觀光集團), the owner of Chateau de Chine Hualien, confirmed the layoff plan in a statement yesterday. LDC said the hotel has been closed since Wednesday last week when the temblor occurred
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last