Taiwanese bankers stationed in Shanghai voiced hope yesterday for a quick start of cross-strait financial cooperation, as Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), China’s top negotiator with Taiwan, left for Taipei for a historic visit.
Although financial issues have not been included in the current round of talks in Taipei between Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS), the bankers contended that the two sides should collaborate to address the negative consequences of the ongoing global financial crisis, which is not expected to end soon.
COOPERATION
They called for speedy cooperation between the two sides to minimize the impact on both sides and address the extant problems, such as allowing Taiwan-based banks to open branches in China to serve Taiwanese businessmen there.
At present, almost all major Taiwan-based banks and stocks and securities firms have opened offices in China — mainly in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen and Kunshan.
CHEN VISIT
Meanwhile, Chen landed at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport later yesterday for a five-day visit as head of a 60-member delegation, including executives of China’s major banks.
In a written statement issued upon arrival, Chen called for continued and systematic SEF-ARATS negotiations to push for increased exchanges between the two sides.
ITINERARY
Later in the day, Chen paid a visit to the widow of late SEF chairman Koo Chen-fu.
Today he is scheduled to hold talks with SEF Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤), after which the two men are expected to sign four agreements on the expansion of cross-strait air services, the opening of shipping and postal links and a food safety cooperation mechanism.
He also plans to visit Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) today.
In the coming days, the ARATS chairman plans to meet various Taiwanese political and business leaders.
He also plans to visit several science and industrial facilities before flying back to Beijing.
Chen and Chiang met for the first time in Beijing in June and clinched two landmark pacts on tourism and the opening of direct weekend passenger charter flights across the Taiwan Strait, paving the way for their second meeting in Taipei.
UNCERTAINTY: Investors remain worried that trade negotiations with Washington could go poorly, given Trump’s inconsistency on tariffs in his second term, experts said The consumer confidence index this month fell for a ninth consecutive month to its lowest level in 13 months, as global trade uncertainties and tariff risks cloud Taiwan’s economic outlook, a survey released yesterday by National Central University found. The biggest decline came from the timing for stock investments, which plunged 11.82 points to 26.82, underscoring bleak investor confidence, it said. “Although the TAIEX reclaimed the 21,000-point mark after the US and China agreed to bury the hatchet for 90 days, investors remain worried that the situation would turn sour later,” said Dachrahn Wu (吳大任), director of the university’s Research Center for
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in artificial-intelligence (AI) chips, yesterday said that small-volume production of 3-nanometer (nm) chips for a key customer is on track to start by the end of this year, dismissing speculation about delays in producing advanced chips. As Alchip is transitioning from 7-nanometer and 5-nanometer process technology to 3 nanometers, investors and shareholders have been closely monitoring whether the company is navigating through such transition smoothly. “We are proceeding well in [building] this generation [of chips]. It appears to me that no revision will be required. We have achieved success in designing
PROJECTION: KGI Financial said that based on its foreign exchange exposure, a NT$0.1 increase in the New Taiwan dollar would negatively impact it by about NT$1.7 billion KGI Financial Holding Co (凱基金控) yesterday said its life insurance arm has increased hedging and adopted other moves to curb the impact of the local currency’s appreciation on its profitability. “It is difficult to accurately depict the hedging costs, which might vary from 7 percent to 40 percent in a single day,” KGI Life Insurance Co (凱基人壽) told an investors’ conference in Taipei. KGI Life, which underpinned 66 percent of the group’s total net income last year, has elevated hedging to 55 to 60 percent, while using a basket of currencies to manage currency volatility, the insurer said. As different
Taiwanese insurers are facing difficult questions about the damage of recent swings in the New Taiwan dollar. Regulators might have a partial solution: letting firms change how they calculate the value of foreign currency assets. The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) is considering allowing insurers to use six-month average exchange rates when they calculate risk-based capital in their semiannual reports, a shift from the current system where insurers use exchange rates on the final day of reporting. The change could ease pressure on the US$1.2 trillion insurance sector, whose huge exposure to foreign assets came into the spotlight earlier this month after a
RSS