Tatung University president Chu Wen-chen (朱文成) yesterday became the first outsider to become Taiwan Power Co’s (Taipower, 台電) president in the state-run company’s 60-year history, but he is facing a long list of challenges.
These challenges include the controversial construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao District (貢寮), New Taipei City (新北市), losses of NT$193.6 billion (US$6.56 billion) and the rising cost of fuel and electricity.
“Taipower must operate more efficiently to rebuild its broken image,” Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Francis Liang (梁國新) said yesterday at a handover ceremony.
Photo: CNA
“We expect Chu to run Taipower from a new perspective and with a new approach,” Liang said.
Chu replaced Lee Han-shen (李漢申), who retired yesterday.
Chu said he agreed with Lee’s business philosophy that Taipower should operate effectively to achieve sales growth without being hindered by a bureaucratic system.
“Taipower is in the service sector, not the manufacturing sector. Taipower’s duty is to provide satisfactory service to its customers. The company should work to achieve this goal,” Chu said.
Chu said his priority after taking office is to improve communication with the public.
Taipower needs to publicize information about electricity supplies as soon as possible to clarify misunderstandings, he added.
“Taipower has to fix many of the ways its business performs, but it was never as bad as some have claimed,” Chu said.
Asked by reporters for his views on the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, Chu said: “Taipower will seek alternative solutions if a referendum shows a majority of people do not want a new nuclear power plant.”
“We don’t mean to threaten the society. The problem is that if the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant does not become operational, everyone will have to suffer an electricity supply constraint, but we are confident we could solve the problem,” Chu said.
Chu said he would demand that Taipower employees do not collude with contractors, adding that if anything illegal is discovered, the company would report the matter to prosecutors immediately.
When Lika Megreladze was a child, life in her native western Georgian region of Guria revolved around tea. Her mother worked for decades as a scientist at the Soviet Union’s Institute of Tea and Subtropical Crops in the village of Anaseuli, Georgia, perfecting cultivation methods for a Georgian tea industry that supplied the bulk of the vast communist state’s brews. “When I was a child, this was only my mum’s workplace. Only later I realized that it was something big,” she said. Now, the institute lies abandoned. Yellowed papers are strewn around its decaying corridors, and a statue of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin
UNIFYING OPPOSITION: Numerous companies have registered complaints over the potential levies, bringing together rival automakers in voicing their reservations US President Donald Trump is readying plans for industry-specific tariffs to kick in alongside his country-by-country duties in two weeks, ramping up his push to reshape the US’ standing in the global trading system by penalizing purchases from abroad. Administration officials could release details of Trump’s planned 50 percent duty on copper in the days before they are set to take effect on Friday next week, a person familiar with the matter said. That is the same date Trump’s “reciprocal” levies on products from more than 100 nations are slated to begin. Trump on Tuesday said that he is likely to impose tariffs
ELECTRONICS BOOST: A predicted surge in exports would likely be driven by ICT products, exports of which have soared 84.7 percent from a year earlier, DBS said DBS Bank Ltd (星展銀行) yesterday raised its GDP growth forecast for Taiwan this year to 4 percent from 3 percent, citing robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI)-related exports and accelerated shipment activity, which are expected to offset potential headwinds from US tariffs. “Our GDP growth forecast for 2025 is revised up to 4 percent from 3 percent to reflect front-loaded exports and strong AI demand,” Singapore-based DBS senior economist Ma Tieying (馬鐵英) said in an online briefing. Taiwan’s second-quarter performance beat expectations, with GDP growth likely surpassing 5 percent, driven by a 34.1 percent year-on-year increase in exports, Ma said, citing government
HELPING HAND: Approving the sale of H20s could give China the edge it needs to capture market share and become the global standard, a US representative said The US President Donald Trump administration’s decision allowing Nvidia Corp to resume shipments of its H20 artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China risks bolstering Beijing’s military capabilities and expanding its capacity to compete with the US, the head of the US House Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party said. “The H20, which is a cost-effective and powerful AI inference chip, far surpasses China’s indigenous capability and would therefore provide a substantial increase to China’s AI development,” committee chairman John Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican, said on Friday in a letter to US Secretary of
RSS