Telecom chair urges share sale

The company has budgeted NT$3.3 billion this year to extend its 3G network and NT$2.9 billion for 2005.

Chunghwa Telecom generated NT$1.7 million in profit from each of the 29,070 employees it had last year, according to Bloomberg data. The company's largest rival, Taiwan Cellular Corp (台灣大哥大), got NT$9.2 million in net income from each of its 1,442 workers during the same period.

"This is an area where we don't have much progress," Hochen said. "A few months ago, about 500 people took early retirement. We thought it would be over 1,000."

Hochen said he aims to transfer up to 6,000 Chunghwa Telecom workers to an investment arm that would eventually be made independent.