The Control Yuan censured the National Property Bureau yesterday for having failed to establish an effective monitoring mechanism for the use of public land, leading to large swathes of land being illegally occupied by golf courses.
The government’s top supervisory arm said in a statement that a total of 111 parcels of public land covering a combined area of 16.67 hectares had been illegally used by 15 golf courses until early this year, when a Control Yuan team stepped in to investigate the situation.
The team was assembled after the Control Yuan received an appeal saying that the Formosa First Country Club in Lujhu Township (蘆竹), Taoyuan County, had broken land use laws.
After a thorough inspection, the team headed by Control Yuan member Chou Yang-shan (周陽山) discovered that illegal land occupation is rampant among local golf courses. Not only had the Formosa First Country Club illegally occupied national land, but also 14 others throughout the country, including the Tashee Golf and Country Club in Taoyuan County, the Pei Tou Kuo Hua Golf and Country Club in Taipei City and the Linkou lnternational Golf and Country Club in Taipei County — some of the most prestigious clubs in Taiwan.
“Some of the land parcels have been occupied since before January 1978, with the latest case dating back to July 1998,” Chou said.
The National Property Bureau did not address the issue until April this year, and only upon learning that the Control Yuan had begun an investigation, Chou said.
“The bureau finally directed its branch offices in various parts of Taiwan in April to check the use of public land lots under their jurisdiction and has since been taking rent for the land from the golf courses in question,” Chou said.
It is regrettable that the bureau failed to fulfill its official duty of protecting national property and sat on its hands by allowing golf course operators to use public land for free for such a long time, he added.
In response, National Property Bureau Director-General Chang Pei-zhi (張佩智) said his agency had yet to receive the Control Yuan’s statement and could not comment on the matter.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure