The Ministry of Economic Affairs and the National Communications Commission (NCC) announced yesterday they will send independent accountants to serve as auditors at Asia Pacific Broadband Telecom Co (亞太固網), a unit of the scandal-embroiled Rebar Asia Pacific Group (力霸亞太企業集團).
The government's latest move came after prosecutors raided the headquarters of Asia Pacific Broadband Telecom on Monday on suspicion that approximately NT$29.5 billion (US$899.6 million) of funds raised by the company had been embezzled.
"So far, the finances and daily operation of Asia Pacific Broadband Telecom have been normal," Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-hsiang (施顏祥) told a press conference last night.
How long the auditors will stay at Asia Pacific Broadband Telecom depends on future development at the company, he said.
Gary Wang (王令麟), chairman of Rebar-related Eastern Multimedia Group (東森多媒體), is suspected of embezzling funds from Asia Pacific Broadband Telecom, Chinese-language media reports said.
In response to the speculation and to safeguard shareholders' interests, NCC chairman Su Yeong-ching (蘇永欽) said in the legislature earlier yesterday that the NCC had set up an ad hoc committee to supervise the operations of the company.
The government holds a 17.21 percent stake in Asia Pacific Broadband Telecom through state agency Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA,
Of the 33 seats on the board of Asia Pacific Broadband Telecom, TRA controls five and Mega International one.
China Steel originally had one seat, but resigned the position on Jan. 12 after suggestions in improving corporate governance were ignored by the board.
The measures were agreed by Wang Lin-tai (王令台), vice chairman of Asia Pacific Broadband Telecom, who is in charge of Asia Pacific Broadband Telecom, after chairwoman Chin She-ying (王金世英) fled overseas with her husband, Wang You-theng (王又曾), chairman of the Rebar Group.
Asia Pacific Broadband Telecom, with registered capital of NT$65.68 billion, obtained the license to operate fixed-line telecom services on Jan. 19, 2001.
It has 1,383 employees and posted a net income of NT$417 million as of the end of November last year.
Along with subsidiaries Asia Pacific Broadband Wireless Communications Inc (亞太行動寬頻) and Internet service provider Asia Pacific Online Services Inc (亞太線上), the company has 1.38 million users and posted an annual revenue of NT$10.5 billion last year, the company said in a statement.
It expects to see the figure exceed NT$18.5 billion this year, the statement said.
Once Asia Pacific Broadband Telecom suspends its operation, the NCC will help consumers transfer to other service providers, NCC vice chairman Howard Shyr (石世豪) said at the press conference.
As of the end of last month, the company had 150,000 home telephone subscribers.
The users will be able to shift to other fixed-line providers, such as Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), with relative ease, Shyr said.
Telecom regulations say that telecom companies need to apply for termination of service three months ahead, giving users sufficient time to switch to other service providers, Shyr said.
Government Information Office Minister and Cabinet Spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang
(鄭文燦) yesterday said that both customers' and cooperative companies'
legal rights will be protected.
“The Cabinet has asked the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the National
Communications Commission to get involved and figure out the company's
financial situation,” Cheng said in a cell phone text message yesterday
morning.
additional reporting by Jimmy Chuang
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
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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],”
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts