Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) yesterday denied speculation that Taiwan would allow Chinese banks to merge with or invest in Taiwanese banks or financial institutions.
Asked to comment on reports that Chinese banks would now be allowed to merge with Taiwan-based banks and financial institutions, Wu told the Taiwan Foreign Correspondents Club that this was not the case.
“So far, it is not the case that Chinese banks can buy Taiwanese banks,” Wu said.
PHOTO: CHIEN JUNG-FONG, TAIPEI TIMES
He said, however, that during talks on a proposed economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) between Taiwan and China, discussions could touch on allowing one or two Chinese banks to open branches in Taiwan.
“We might discuss one or two Chinese branches being able to establish themselves in Taiwan,” the premier said, “but there will be no discussions on acquiring Taiwanese banks.”
Wu, who emphasized that the administration would take a “step-by-step” approach to cross-strait agreements, said that an ECFA would not be discussed during the fourth round of talks between the Straits Exchange Foundation and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait in Taichung later this month.
Negotiations on an ECFA, he said, would start at the beginning of next year.
Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) said later yesterday that the two sides would begin formal negotiations on an ECFA after the Lunar New Year, which falls in mid-February.
Earlier yesterday, Wu told representatives of the Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce (CNAIC, 工商協進會) that Taiwan’s industrial development would be jeopardized without an ECFA in view of the threats posed by ASEAN Plus One.
With the ASEAN Plus One to take effect next year, the average export tariffs on Taiwanese goods to China will be 9 percent more than those of ASEAN countries — a disadvantage that could put companies off setting up production facilities in Taiwan, he said.
Taiwan will be further marginalized when a free-trade zone is formed among ASEAN with China, South Korea and Japan, he said.
CNAIC chairman Theodore Huang (黃茂雄) said that the government should allay companies’ skepticism on the potential impact of an ECFA and come up with plans to help affected industries.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is