The long-sought bailout fund bill that would amend the Resolution Trust Committee Fund Regulatory Provisions (金融重建基金設置及管理條例) yesterday failed to be put to a second reading in the Legislative Yuan, as negotiations continued on the amount of compensation the fund should provide to struggling banks to help them cover their non-savings debts to customers.
However, after six hours of cross-party negotiations, the Cabinet and legislature did reach a consensus yesterday that the government will not compensate problematic banks' non-saving debts occurring after the bill's third reading.
The draft amendment originally stipulated that the fund would fully cover non-saving debts through Sept. 10, two months after the expiration date for the Financial Restructuring Fund (金融重建基金) -- also known as the RTC fund -- in an effort to facilitate the self-help process of debt-ridden banks.
In a concession, the finance authority moved that date forward after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lee Jih-chu (
Both the Cabinet and the Legislature will on Monday continue negotiations over an initiative by the KMT caucus to cap the scale of the fund at NT$100 billion (US$3.18 billion), down from the NT$125 billion proposed by the Cabinet, before putting the bill to a second and third reading during the last Legislative session on Tuesday, People First Party Legislator Christina Liu (
Liu was optimistic about the bill's passage before the session ends on Tuesday, citing the common interest of the ruling and opposition parties.
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
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained