The central bank yesterday rebutted speculation that it would adopt a Tobin tax or other measures to block a government plan to promote Taiwan as a global financial center for high-tech industries.
This move came after an economics professor accused central bank Governor Perng Fai-nan (彭淮南) of preventing Taiwan from developing into a financing center by adopting “hot money” taxes or other measures in yesterday’s edition of the Chinese-language China Times.
“The purpose of our requiring foreign capital to be invested in equities is to maintain financial discipline,” the central bank said in a statement yesterday.
Peng has never called on the government to “suspend” its plan to build the nation as a financial platform for high-tech industries, the statement said.
To support his argument that a financial center should not curb capital inflows, the economics professor cited the three major global financial centers of New York City, London and Hong Kong, which adopted either a floating exchange rate system or a linked exchange rate system.
In response, the central bank said countries with a focus on financial services didn’t always adopt fixed or floating exchange rate systems, adding that Singapore, which strives to promote financial services, adopted a managed floating exchange rate system.
RSS