Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Vice Chairman Liu Te-shun (劉德勳) called on pan-blue and pan-green lawmakers to join forces in persuading China to hammer out an agreement with Taiwan on establishing financial supervisory mechanisms allowing Taiwanese banks to set up branch offices in China.
Liu said at a MAC press conference yesterday that China requires countries whose banks seek to enter its market to sign Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) with it before allowing them to establish branch offices there.
Such MOUs lay out rules on banking supervision and risk management for foreign banks.
"That's a law that China has in place, and it applies to all countries, not just to Taiwan," Liu said, referring to China's MOU requirement.
The vice chairman added that Taiwan was "ready and willing at any time" to negotiate a banking MOU with China, as well as any other financial supervisory arrangements, but that China has been unwilling to engage Taiwan on such issues.
"This is a problem of China being unwilling to address the situation," Liu said.
A MAC press release called for bi-partisan cooperation yesterday in urging China to remove "political barriers" in its consideration of hammering out a financial supervisory agreement with Taiwan, adding that a unified message from the ruling and opposition parties might spur China to open up to domestic banks.
In response to a question at the briefing, Liu said that the legal infrastructure needed for Chinese banks and investors to enter the Taiwanese market was incomplete, adding that the establishment of supervisory measures and other relevant laws in that regard was the responsibility of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA).
"It would be hard for Chinese banks to establish branch offices in Taiwan, too," Liu conceded, adding that the MOEA needed more time to formulate the necessary measures and rules allowing Chinese banks to enter the country.
As for if or when local chipmakers would be allowed to set up 8-inch wafer fabs and use 0.18-micron manufacturing technology in China, Liu refused to speculate on whether the chipmakers would be allowed to do so by the end of next month.
"As far as I know, this matter is still being considered by the MOEA," Liu said.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the