In a bid to help local banks command a greater presence across Asia, the Financial Supervisory Commission plans to relax regulations on the financial industry, the Cabinet said yesterday.
The regulator aims to devise measures to increase international supervisory cooperation, relax regulations, cultivate international talent and establish a database for firms’ overseas expansions, Cabinet spokesperson Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) said, relaying comments made by Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) at a meeting on boosting banks’ competitiveness.
Jiang outlined plans to turn Taiwanese banks into leading regional financial institutions in three to five years, calling on the commission to sharpen financial service providers’ competitive edge and spur industry growth by working with other agencies to amend relevant regulations, Cheng said.
The premier also instructed the Ministry of Finance to study salary discrepancies at state-owned and private banks and suggested relaxing hiring restrictions and giving performance bonuses, according to FSC Chairman William Tseng (曾銘宗).
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Tseng said that Taiwan should position itself to take advantage of the flourishing banking industry in Asia.
The markets in China, the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam have enormous potential for growth, the chairman said.
The commission plans to train 1,500 professionals each year to help the local banking industry expand into foreign markets, he said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last