Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC, 台灣高鐵) said yesterday that the three independent directors on its board had agreed to halve their salaries amid a public uproar over their high pay when the company’s finances remain firmly in the red.
The company said in a statement that its board held a meeting yesterday at which independent directors Lin Chen-kuo (林振國), Victor Liu (劉維琪) and George Chen (陳世圯) voluntarily agreed to cut their basic annual salaries to NT$900,000 (US$28,000) from NT$1.8 million.
THSRC said the cut in basic salaries would be retroactive to January this year, according to the statement.
The three independent directors, appointed by the government to sit on the rail company’s board, have been called “government fat cats” and criticized for being simultaneously paid by multiple public agencies.
While the government had asked the company to solve the issue as soon as possible, THSRC failed to address the matter at its annual general meeting last month, even though both Liu and Chen later told local media that they would be willing to have their salaries halved or even do their jobs for free.
Lin will still earn NT$1.62 million a year at THSRC as he also chairs the company’s audit committee, which pays him NT$720,000 a year. Both Liu and Chen will make NT$1.26 million each a year, as Liu heads the firm’s finance committee, for which he receives an annual salary of NT$360,000 and Chen the corporate governance committee, which also provides annual compensation of NT$360,000.
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
Popular vape brands such as Geek Bar might get more expensive in the US — if you can find them at all. Shipments of vapes from China to the US ground to a near halt last month from a year ago, official data showed, hit by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and a crackdown on unauthorized e-cigarettes in the world’s biggest market for smoking alternatives. That includes Geek Bar, a brand of flavored vapes that is not authorized to sell in the US, but which had been widely available due to porous import controls. One retailer, who asked not to be named, because
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce