The Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Saturday that the performance of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) under the ministry is primarily determined by rising energy costs in the global market, as well as the need to adjust to new business strategies.
Ministry officials said the enterprises must also comply with the government's policies and regulations on environmental protection.
The officials were responding to criticism by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) earlier in the day.
Lai said that SOEs had squandered NT$240 billion (US$7.18 billion) in taxpayer money between 2003 and last year due to idle facilities, inefficiency or poor management, and vowed to rigorously scrutinize the budget for state-owned enterprises in future.
The officials cited the example of Taiwan Power Co (
Under a rejuvenization project for SOEs, the overall performance of the enterprises has markedly improved, officials said.
The pre-tax surplus of SOEs rose to NT$38.352 billion in 2004 from NT$21.713 billion in 2001, they said. Despite the soaring energy costs last year, the pre-tax surplus still amounted to NT$12.075 billion, higher than the goal of NT$7.645 billion, they said.
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
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last