Bank of China (中國銀行), the first Chinese lender to set up a branch in Taiwan, aims to forge closer ties with Taiwanese firms with operations in China, including offers of yuan settlement services once Taipei and Beijing work out a mechanism, the lender’s president Li Lihui (李禮輝) said yesterday.
Li, who hosted the official opening of the branch in Taipei, said he met with officials at the central bank and the Financial Supervisory Commission for talks on business development plans.
“As a commercial bank, we hope the two sides can promptly set up a currency settlement mechanism,” Li told a media briefing.
WARNING: EXCESSIVE CONSUMPTION OF ALCOHOL CAN DAMAGE YOUR HEALTH
Photo: Liao Chen-hui, Taipei Times
Bank of China is the world’s top provider of yuan settlement services, which amounted to 803 billion yuan (US$126 billion) for the first five months of the year, Li said.
“We are the main [yuan] settlement bank in Hong Kong, Macau and Malaysia and we hope to extend the services to Taipei once regulatory barriers are removed,” he said.
With cross-strait trade valued at US$160 billion last year and Taiwan’s trade surplus totaling US$89.8 billion, yuan settlement would save Taiwanese firms with cross-strait operations significant foreign-exchange costs and allow them to better control foreign-exchange risks, Li said.
Currently, only designated banking units can conduct yuan exchanges, but they cannot take yuan deposits or provide yuan loans. Further, domestic lenders may provide yuan-related business for corporate clients through their offshore banking units.
The designated banking units have to go through either Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行) or Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐銀行) for currency settlements with Bank of China in Hong Kong.
Li said Bank of China plans to provide over 200 billion yuan to help Taiwanese firms expand in China in the next three years.
Potential borrowers are Taiwanese firms that can advance China’s development plans and meet lending criteria, he said.
Li said the Taipei branch would keep close contact with the headquarters of Taiwanese firms with operations in China so the lender can better mobilize its global resources to strengthen services.
Netherlands-based semiconductor equipment supplier ASML Holding NV yesterday said that it is planning to hire an additional 1,000 people in Taiwan this year in response to growing demand from clients. ASML had previously planned to recruit 600 people this year, but that the plan has been adjusted upward, ASML vice president and ASML Taiwan general manager Grace Wang (汪佳慧) told reporters. ASML has a workforce of more than 4,500 in Taiwan, accounting for about 10 percent of its global total, Wang said. This year’s recruitment campaign would focus on adding people in the customer support, manufacturing and supply chain domains to assist ASML
UNDER MICROSCOPE: Taiwan detained three people who allegedly conspired to buy servers in Taiwan and export them using fraudulent documentation, prosecutors said Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday urged Super Micro Computer Inc to tighten up on compliance after Taiwan detained three people this week for allegedly making fraudulent declarations about artificial intelligence (AI) servers made by its US partner. The development marked the nation’s first crackdown on semiconductor smuggling, which grew after the US slapped restrictions on exports of high-end chips such as Nvidia AI accelerators to China. Nvidia is “rigorous” in explaining regulations to all of its partners, Huang told reporters after arriving in Taipei. “Ultimately Super Micro has to run their own company,” he said in response to
Nvidia Corp yesterday announced that CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) would attend an employee meeting in Taipei tomorrow to celebrate the launch of the company’s Taiwan headquarters project. Huang would attend a gathering at the site of Nvidia’s planned headquarters in Beitou Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區), the company said in a statement. After arriving in Taiwan on Saturday last week, Huang told reporters that he plans to meet with Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), and would attend the groundbreaking ceremony for Nvidia’s Taiwan headquarters tomorrow. Nvidia has not yet applied
Huawei Technologies Co (華為) said it has come up with a new pathway to shorten its gap with industry leader Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), potentially achieving a breakthrough in making advanced semiconductors without cutting-edge equipment. Right now there is about a five-year gap between what TSMC is capable of and what Huawei, together with its manufacturing partner Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (中芯), can produce. Huawei is to start making 1.4-nanometer chips by 2031 with its own “LogicFolding” technology, Huawei semiconductor chief He Tingbo (何庭波) said in a rare public appearance during a chip conference yesterday, while TSMC has
RSS