Indonesian laborers and a human rights group protested yesterday in front of Chinatrust Commercial Bank's (
"Chinatrust imposes 19 percent interest rates on brokerage loans for the Indonesian laborers, which is as high as the rates for cash-advance cards," said Wu Jing-ru (
Currently, Indonesian workers are brought into Taiwan's job market under the "state-to-state importation" scheme, a system that involves the assistance of an embassy or representative office in Taiwan and its counterpart in the country of origin.
PHOTO: AFP
Under this system, Indonesians are required to pay a brokerage fee amounting to NT$49,787 (US$1,533), for taking out loans from the Chinatrust representative office in Indonesia, the Bank Chinatrust Indonesia, to come and work in Taiwan.
Including the 19 percent interest rate, processing fee and account management charge, these laborers will have to fork out a total of NT$70,545 (US$2,171) to pay off their loans, Wu said.
In response, Chinatrust said that the interest rates are imposed based on the situation in Indonesia, where banking institutions normally charge between 20 to 43 percent interest on consumer loans.
According to Jack Cheng (
"We are currently the only bank in charge of this loan operation, but we are not a monopoly as the Indonesian government is free to appoint other financial institutions as well," he said.
He added that further discussions between Chinatrust and Indonesian officials are under way.
BYPASSING CHINA TARIFFS: In the first five months of this year, Foxconn sent US$4.4bn of iPhones to the US from India, compared with US$3.7bn in the whole of last year Nearly all the iPhones exported by Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) from India went to the US between March and last month, customs data showed, far above last year’s average of 50 percent and a clear sign of Apple Inc’s efforts to bypass high US tariffs imposed on China. The numbers, being reported by Reuters for the first time, show that Apple has realigned its India exports to almost exclusively serve the US market, when previously the devices were more widely distributed to nations including the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. During March to last month, Foxconn, known as Hon Hai Precision Industry
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and the University of Tokyo (UTokyo) yesterday announced the launch of the TSMC-UTokyo Lab to promote advanced semiconductor research, education and talent development. The lab is TSMC’s first laboratory collaboration with a university outside Taiwan, the company said in a statement. The lab would leverage “the extensive knowledge, experience, and creativity” of both institutions, the company said. It is located in the Asano Section of UTokyo’s Hongo, Tokyo, campus and would be managed by UTokyo faculty, guided by directors from UTokyo and TSMC, the company said. TSMC began working with UTokyo in 2019, resulting in 21 research projects,
Taiwan’s property market is entering a freeze, with mortgage activity across the nation’s six largest cities plummeting in the first quarter, H&B Realty Co (住商不動產) said yesterday, citing mounting pressure on housing demand amid tighter lending rules and regulatory curbs. Mortgage applications in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung totaled 28,078 from January to March, a sharp 36.3 percent decline from 44,082 in the same period last year, the nation’s largest real-estate brokerage by franchise said, citing data from the Joint Credit Information Center (JCIC, 聯徵中心). “The simultaneous decline across all six cities reflects just how drastically the market
Ashton Hall’s morning routine involves dunking his head in iced Saratoga Spring Water. For the company that sells the bottled water — Hall’s brand of choice for drinking, brushing his teeth and submerging himself — that is fantastic news. “We’re so thankful to this incredible fitness influencer called Ashton Hall,” Saratoga owner Primo Brands Corp’s CEO Robbert Rietbroek said on an earnings call after Hall’s morning routine video went viral. “He really helped put our brand on the map.” Primo Brands, which was not affiliated with Hall when he made his video, is among the increasing number of companies benefiting from influencer
RSS