Financial Supervisory Commission chairman Sean Chen (陳冲) said yesterday that Taiwan and China had reached a consensus to allow Chinese capital investments in Taiwanese brokerages and insurance companies.
However, more discussions between the two sides will be needed on allowing Chinese banks to invest in Taiwanese banks because these investments are more complicated, the Central News Agency quoted Chen as saying at a press conference yesterday.
Chen said an intra-ministerial task force was still reviewing measures that would facilitate cross-strait investment in financial institutions — including banks, insurance companies and brokerages — after a memorandum of understanding on financial supervision between Taiwan and China took effect last month. He did not say when the Cabinet would announce the measures.
Chen said the commission would set out plans for Chinese capital to invest in Taiwanese brokerage and insurance companies to maintain stability in these sectors, adding that the opening would help consolidate fragmented financial sectors in Taiwan.
On investment by Chinese banks in their Taiwanese counterparts, Chen said talks would involve Taiwanese bank operations in China, which Taipei hopes to include on the agenda of the second round of negotiations on a proposed economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA).
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China is clamping down on fertilizer exports to protect its domestic market, industry sources said, putting an additional strain on global markets that were already grappling with shortages caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran. China is among the largest fertilizer exporters — shipping more than US$13 billion of it last year — and it has a history of controlling exports to keep prices low for farmers. Shipments through the war-blocked Strait of Hormuz account for about one-third of the sea-borne supply. This month, Beijing banned exports of nitrogen-potassium fertilizer blends and certain phosphate varieties, sources said. The ban, which has not
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