ABT to fill service gaps: Hsieh

Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) yesterday expressed the hope that the launch of the Agricultural Bank of Taiwan (ABT, 全國農業金庫) will help set up a complete system of agricultural finance in Taiwan.

Hsieh made the remarks when addressing the opening of the bank, which is aimed at offering easier credit access to farmers and fishermen and is in charge of guiding the credit operations of farmers' and fishermen's associations nationwide.

Hsieh said that setting up the bank had been one of the government's promises to enhance the well-being of farmers and fishermen, and that he hoped the bank's profits will be used to assist in the development of farmers' and fishermen's associations.

The premier said the government, which holds a 49 percent stake in the bank, will monitor its operations to protect the interests of farmers and fishermen.

According to Lee Chin-lung (李金龍), chairman of the Council of Agriculture (COA), the need to establish an agricultural bank was one of the conclusions reached during the national conference on agricultural finance held Nov. 30, 2002.

To pave the way for the bank's establishment, the government enacted the agricultural finance law on Jan. 30 last year, and set up the Bureau of Agricultural Finance to supervise the credit operations of farmers' and fishermen's associations, Lee said.

He said the government's efforts have improved the financial quality of these associations' credit operations significantly over the past year, with their overdue loan ratio falling from 17.71 percent early last year to 13.97 percent at the end of March.

Also, the COA is planning to set up an agricultural asset management company to assist the farmers' and fishermen's associations in handling non-performing loans in the hope that their overdue loan ratio will be lowered to 5 percent, he added.

Meanwhile, ABT chairman Lin Peng-lang (林彭郎) pledged that the bank will serve to stabilize agricultural finance, improve the operation of agricultural finance institutions and provide financing for major agricultural development projects in line with the government policy.