Print

Mail

wiki links

Business Briefs

Government annuls APTC seal

The battle over the ownership of the Asia-Pacific Telecom Co (APTC, 亞太電信) ended yesterday when the Ministry of Economic Affairs annulled the effectiveness of a seal held by one of the company's overseers that would have allowed shareholders to change the official registration of management.

Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) Vice Minister Ho Nuan-hsuen (何煖軒) confirmed yesterday that Sophia Chiu (邱純枝), vice president of TECO Electric and Machinery Co (東元電機), is now the chairperson of APTC.

Ho added that government shareholders had tried to enter the company on Monday to check if there was any hidden debt accumulated during the former APTC chairman Springfield Lai's (賴春田) term. Staff at the company's accounting department, however, had denied their entry, he said.

Ho said that he is not in the position to tell Chiu what to do about the company's troubled financial situation. He simply noted that everything is done according to the legally required procedures.

"I can only say we are taking one step at a time," he said. "I will let [Chiu] handle the rest of the affair."

Fubon to hire 300 employees

Taipei Fubon Bank (台北富邦銀行), the banking arm of Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控), Taiwan's second-largest financial services company by market value, said it will hire 300 new employees this year for its wealth management unit.

The bank will increase its wealth management consultants to 1,000 this year, it said in a statement. It now has 700, Chen Yi-fen (陳怡芬), vice president of Taipei Fubon Bank, said by phone.

Fubon Financial's profit jumped to NT$14 billion (NT$434 million) last year, based on unaudited figures, compared with NT$8.4 billion a year earlier.

TAITRA plans visits to fairs

The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會) plans to invite local firms to participate in 60 international fairs in 30 countries this year to intensively introduce Taiwanese enterprises to foreign buyers, according to a TAITRA statement yesterday.

TAITRA estimated that more than 1,000 local firms will participate in these market exploring activities which are expected to create opportunities for local firms to engage in trade talks with at least 20,000 foreign buyers and create US$120 million in trade.

The plan will cover 40 professional fairs to be held in emerging markets such as India, Brazil, Russia, Vietnam, Turkey, Egypt and Mexico.

Economic freedom ranks 25th

Taiwan ranks 25th in the world in terms of economic freedom, while Hong Kong ranks first overall, according to the results of the "2008 Index of Economic Freedom" assessment released yesterday by the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong.

Taiwan's economy is rated as 71 percent free, which makes it the world's 25th freest economy, the same overall ranking it received last year.

Taiwan's overall score is 0.8 percentage points higher than last year, reflecting improved scores in four of the 10 economic freedoms listed in the rankings.

Taiwan also ranked 6th out of 30 countries and areas in the Asia-Pacific region, with an overall score much higher than the regional average.

The index shows that Taiwan scored well on investment, trade and monetary freedoms, property rights and government size. At the same time, labor and financial freedoms ranked comparatively poorly.

"More needs to be done to dismantle high trade barriers and further liberalize the economy," the resort said.