■ Mega candidate identified
The Ministry of Finance said yesterday that it has recommended a candidate to serve as the independent director on the 15-member board of Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控) to Vice Premier Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
The ministry has also briefed Tsai on its plans for Mega Financial's upcoming boardroom shake-up, said Liu Teng-cheng (劉燈城), director general of the ministry's National Treasury Agency, which governs state shareholdings in financial institutions.
Liu refused to disclose the name of the independent director but said the candidate was a heavyweight scholar who served as a government official.
Stressing that the government will continue to take control of the board of the nation's third-largest financial group by assets, Liu said the ministry plans to invite scholars and high-level government officials to sit on the board.
The company's major private shareholders have agreed that the ministry will have the final say on important decisions, personnel and investment projects.
The chairmanship will be decided by the Cabinet, he added.
■ WTO questions restrictions
Taiwan attended its first trade policy review meeting since joining the WTO in 2002, with restrictions on trade with China being identified as an area for improvement, according to a statement from the Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday.
Steve Chen (陳瑞隆), Vice Minister of Economic Affairs, led a delegation to attend the meeting in Geneva yesterday. Chen said Taiwan had fulfilled its accession promises, and improved investment its environment to facilitate other member investors, the statement said.
Member countries have raised a total of 291 questions for Taiwan, including questions about tax breaks to newly emerging industries, taxes levied on agricultural imports and others, it said. Restrictions on cross-strait trade, such as the ban on 2,200 Chinese imports, were singled out by the WTO Secretariat and the Swiss delegation, the statement said. The Taiwanese delegation will reply to the questions in written form.
■ Zone investment rockets
Investment in the Chungkang Export Processing Zone (EPZ) in Taichung County posted 209 percent growth in the first five months of the year compared with the same period last year.
A spokesman for the Export Processing Zone Administration (EPZA) under the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday that there were 10 cases of investment in the EPZ during the first five months of this year totaling NT$5.26 billion (US$161.49 million).
According to the spokesman, there were currently 50 companies operating in the EPZ, with a combined investment of NT$27.88 billion. Revenue this year is expected to be between NT$25 billion to NT$30 billion.
■ Show opens in Singapore
Asia's largest information and communications expo opened in Singapore yesterday amid industry optimism.
The event, featuring 2,339 exhibiting companies from 54 countries, is expected to attract more than 60,000 people.
Visitors are expected to spend more than US$4.5 billion at the exhibition. The latest innovations were scheduled to be rolled out by such companies as Ericsson, NTT Docomo, LG, Lucent, Motorola, Samsung, Siemens and Sony Ericsson.
■ NT gains on greenback
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against its US counterpart yesterday, rising NT$0.002 to close at NT$32.596 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
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