Cabinet passes job plan
The Cabinet approved a four-year job creation project aimed at reducing unemployment at a meeting presided over by Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) yesterday.
The project calls for the creation of an estimated 55,000 job opportunities each year, or about 200,000 jobs in four years, which would eventually contribute to lowering the unemployment rate by 3 percentage points, officials from the Council for Economic Planning and Development said.
The government will provide annual funding of NT$6.6 billion for the project, which will cover 53 sub-programs. These will mainly involve the expansion of cooperation programs between the academic and industrial sectors, expansion of vocational training programs, wage subsidies to business owners to boost job openings and assistance for start-ups and self-employed entrepreneurs, council officials said.
Cathay plans bond issue
Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), the nation’s biggest financial service provider, said yesterday it planned to raise up to NT$20 billion (US$610 million) by issuing corporate bonds to improve its financial structure.
The company plans to use the proceeds to boost its risk-based capital ratio, it said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Cathay Financial also plans to use part of the funds to subscribe to the share sales of its life insurance arm, Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽), the statement said.
The board of Cathay Life also approved a NT$15 billion fund-raising plan yesterday. The life insurer plans to sell 300 million preferential shares at NT$50 per share.
HTC posts healthy revenues
HTC Corp (宏達電), the world’s largest manufacturer of Windows-based smartphones, reported yesterday that revenue last month reached NT$16.04 billion (US$489 million), an increase of 22.4 percent from October last year.
For the first 10 months of the year, HTC’s total revenues hit NT$121.22 billion, a growth a 30.8 percent from the same period last year, the company said in a statement.
Buyback rules loosened
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said yesterday it will temporarily scrap the rule that requires brokerages to have posted no losses in their most recent annual and semi-annual financial reports to conduct share buybacks.
The requirement will be scrapped until March 31 next year, in consideration of the current state of the securities market and the nature of brokerage business, the statement said. The waiver applies to brokerages that are listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and over-the-counter market.
Lee Chi-hsien (李啟賢), director-general of the Securities and Futures Bureau, said the move will allow brokerages that had posted profits until this year to conduct share buybacks.
Qisda posts slight sales growth
Qisda Corp (佳世達), a local electronics maker and a spin-off of BenQ Corp (明基), said revenues came in at NT$9.85 billion last month, up 2.3 percent from the previous month but down 11.1 percent from the same month last year.
The company was cautious on fourth-quarter prospects, retaining its projector shipment target of 3.5 million units with average selling price trending downward.
Mobile device shipments are expected to reach 200,000 units, it said.
NT dollar gains ground
The New Taiwan dollar continued gaining ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, rising NT$0.011 to close at NT$32.819.
A total of US$1.28 billion changed hands in the day’s trading.
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