The government has convinced banks to help bail out large companies that do not cut personnel during a certain timeframe with loans at preferential interest rates, Minister of Finance Lee Sush-der (李述德) said yesterday.
Lee said banks would provide as much as NT$600 billion (US$28.1 billion) for the bailout, an agreement reached between the Ministry of Finance and the Bankers Association of the Republic of China (銀行公會) on Wednesday stipulated.
“In the face of the global financial crisis, there is no lack of money in the country, but we do need to increase liquidity,” Lee said at a press conference following the weekly Cabinet meeting, where he briefed Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) on the bailout plan.
“Money is not a problem,” Lee said. “Total savings in financial institutions amounts to more than NT$20 trillion, while total loans are between NT$17 and NT$18 trillion.”
Companies qualifying for the bailout plan are in the manufacturing, construction, mining, and quarry sectors with capital of more than NT$80 million or more than 200 employees, and other businesses with an annual turnover of more than NT$100 million or with more than 50 employees.
Under the plan, a business would be granted a loan at a lower interest rate on condition that it does not reduce staff during the loan period.
Businesses could obtain a medium and short-term working capital loan of as much as NT$60 million, while capital investment loans would be capped at NT$200 million.
The plan, which came into force yesterday, will last until the end of 2010.
In related news, the Cabinet approved an amendment to the Act for Promotion of Private Participation in Infrastructure Projects (促進民間參與公共建設法) that grants tax allowances to private businesses involved in telecommunications infrastructure.
Meanwhile, Executive Yuan Spokeswoman Vanessa Shih (史亞平) quoted Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) as saying at the Cabinet meeting that all government agencies should expand short-term job creation by using a NT$3.1 billion budget to be spent by the end of this year and NT$6 billion earmarked for the same purpose next year.
Council for Economic Planning and Development briefed the Cabinet yesterday on how many jobs had been created so far. No numbers were released to the media, but the Cabinet hoped the employment plan, which came into effect on Nov.1, would create 46,000 jobs this year and 56,000 next year.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure