Goldman Sachs, the global investment banking and securities firm, is scheduled to hold a cross-strait technology summit in Taipei on March 22 that will bring together CEOs and heads of heavyweight technology companies in Taiwan and China, a spokeswoman for the company’s Taipei office said yesterday.
The forum, which is unprecedented for the company in Taiwan, could be seen as illustrating the increasing importance the investment company attaches to the Taiwanese bourse’s status in the greater China equity market, a report in yesterday’s edition of the Chinese-language daily the Commercial Times said.
Expected to attend the summit are the heads and CEOs of six leading Taiwanese technology companies, as well as several Chinese business leaders.
In addition, about 100 major foreign institutional investors, including Capital, Fidelity, Schroders, JF, Wellington and Morgan Stanley, which manage combined securities assets of about US$100 billion, will be invited to attend the forum, which is expected to attract another wave of foreign funds into Taiwan’s stock market, the report said.
Institutional investors will exchange views with the company heads on their operational direction over the coming decade, the report said.
Among the Taiwanese executives expected at the forum are: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) chairman and CEO Morris Chang (張忠謀); cellphone maker HTC Corp (宏達電) chairwoman Cher Wang (王雪紅); Acer Inc (宏碁) chairman and CEO Wang Jeng-tang (王振堂); LCD maker AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) chairman Lee Kun-yao (李焜耀); Tsai Ming-kai (蔡明介), chairman of Taiwan’s largest fabless IC design house, MediaTek Inc (聯發科); and Jason Chang (張虔生), chairman and CEO of ASE Group (日月光集團), which specializes in IC packaging and testing.
The Chinese delegates will include Hou Weigui (侯為貴), chairman of Chinese mobile phone maker Shenzhen Zhongxingxin Telecommunications Equipment Co (中興通訊); Beijing Tianyu Communication Equipment Co (天宇朗通) chairwoman Rong Xiuli (榮秀麗); and Innovation Works (創新工場) chairman Lee Kaifu (李開復), according to the report, which was later confirmed by a spokeswoman.
Given the concern among international institutional investors about the proposed economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) between Taiwan and China, Goldman Sachs will invite Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) to give a keynote speech on the issue during the forum, the spokeswoman said.
New York-headquartered Goldman Sachs, which opened its Taipei office 10 years ago, decided to expand its investment in Taiwan’s equity market last September and appointed Chang Chia-lin (張嘉臨) president for the Taiwan region.
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