■ Hon Hai to invest in Liaoning
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), Taiwan's largest electronics maker, said yesterday it would make an investment in northeast China's Liaoning Province for the production of technology and electronics products.
"Our plans are to invest in Shenyang and Yingkou [in Liao-ning] to make precision machinery, automobile components and parts, as well as printed circuit boards," a group official said.
Officials did not disclose further details, however, the Chinese-language Commercial Times reported the contract manufacturer would invest more than US$1 billion in Shenyang and Yingkou.
Hon Hai makes a wide range of products, from cell phones to personal computers and consumer gadgets for brandname companies.
■ Hua Nan in ABN AMRO tie-up
State-controlled Hua Nan Com-mercial Bank (華南銀行) yesterday inked an agreement with ABN AMRO to cooperate in areas including financial product design, staff training and on a trading platform for foreign exchange-linked derivatives, parent company Hua Nan Financial Holding Co (華南金控) announced yesterday.
The pact took effect immediately yesterday and will run through Feb. 28, 2010, the company said in a statement.
"The tie-up will help sharpen Hua Nan's capability in designing and selling complex derivatives products ? as well as raising the bank's fee income generated from derivatives trading," the statement read.
Hua Nan will use ABN AMRO's "Goldfish Option System" trading platform for foreign exchange-linked derivatives in the first year to sell such products through the local bank's distribution network nationwide, it said.
ABN AMRO will also provide tailor-made derivatives products for Hua Nan's clients to meet a variety of customers' risk appetites, the company said.
Hua Nan will send its employees to be trained in the Dutch bank's treasury departments in Singapore, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
■ GRETAI changes reporting rules
The GRETAI Securities Market, which oversees over-the-counter trading in Taiwan, said yesterday that it will require all companies listed on the Emerging Stock Market to disclose quarterly financial results, in a bid to strengthen timely information disclosure and protect investors' interests.
Under the new rule, listed companies must produce quarterly financial reports, rather than the semi-annual and annual reports that were required previously.
■ CLA to mull minimum wage
The Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) is set to convene a meeting after the Lunar New Year holidays to discuss adjusting the country's minimum wage, which has remained unchanged at NT$15,840 (US$481) per month for the last nine years, CLA Chairman Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) said yesterday.
Lee said that adjusting the minimum wage, and by how much, is a matter for the CLA's basic wage screening committee, but that he personally felt the minimum wage should be raised to better reflect current realities.
Lee said that he saw an upward adjustment as necessary given the fact that over 90 percent of Taiwan's laborers earn over NT$20,000 a month, that the country's unemployment rate fell to a new six-year low of 3.91 percent last year and that many local companies have reported a shortage of labor.
■ NT dollar weaker
The New Taiwan dollar weakened against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, losing NT$0.053 to close the day at NT$33.024.
A total turnover of US$807 million was reported.
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