The Ministry of Finance is to suggest that the Cabinet create a platform to marshal the operations of four state funds to boost their efficiency and profitability so they can better help strengthen the nation’s financial health, Minister of Finance Chang Sheng-ford (張盛和) said yesterday.
“The idea is to integrate the four funds into a quasi-sovereign wealth fund [SWF] without needing to revise the law,” Chang said by telephone.
The funds are the Labor Insurance Fund, Labor Pension Fund, Public Service Pension Fund and postal savings deposits with an aggregate value of more than NT$7 trillion (US$223.34 billion).
Government agencies are due to recommend measures to revive the economy during the Cabinet’s regular weekly meeting tomorrow.
The four funds cannot now function as an SWF, maximizing returns through investment in global stocks, commodities, real estate, hedge funds and private equities because they are designed to operate separately, with a focus on Taiwanese shares and helping support the local bourse if requested, Chang said.
Due to a lack of integration and coordination, one fund might be selling certain shares while another is buying them, which is inefficient, the minister said.
Existing rules also limit the use of profits generated by the funds, tying government’s hands in times of need, he said.
“A joint management platform can prevent such scenarios and make the funds more profitable and flexible,” Chang said.
For the medium and long term, the ministry plans to push for legal revisions to establish a sovereign wealth fund, allowing the four state funds to have a more diversified portfolio and higher returns, Chang said.
There should be no big obstacle to a joint management platform even though the four have separate contracts with different portfolio managers.
Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (中華經濟研究院) vice president Wang Jiann-chyuan (王健全) voiced support for an SWF whose return may be used to finance social welfare spending linked to the nation’s aging population.
The nation also needs to diversify its exports as overconcentration on a few electronic industries has made the economy vulnerable to global cyclical movements, Wang said.
The Cabinet is likely to set up a NT$10 billion mergers and acquisitions (M&A) fund using the National Development Fund and money from the private sector, local media reported.
The M&A fund would be designed to help Taiwanese companies expand their scale so they can better compete internationally, the media reports said.
The government would help firms to seek acquisition targets at home and abroad, and help them obtain raw materials, technology, brands and talents, the reports said.
In Italy’s storied gold-making hubs, jewelers are reworking their designs to trim gold content as they race to blunt the effect of record prices and appeal to shoppers watching their budgets. Gold prices hit a record high on Thursday, surging near US$5,600 an ounce, more than double a year ago as geopolitical concerns and jitters over trade pushed investors toward the safe-haven asset. The rally is putting undue pressure on small artisans as they face mounting demands from customers, including international brands, to produce cheaper items, from signature pieces to wedding rings, according to interviews with four independent jewelers in Italy’s main
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has talked up the benefits of a weaker yen in a campaign speech, adopting a tone at odds with her finance ministry, which has refused to rule out any options to counter excessive foreign exchange volatility. Takaichi later softened her stance, saying she did not have a preference for the yen’s direction. “People say the weak yen is bad right now, but for export industries, it’s a major opportunity,” Takaichi said on Saturday at a rally for Liberal Democratic Party candidate Daishiro Yamagiwa in Kanagawa Prefecture ahead of a snap election on Sunday. “Whether it’s selling food or
CONCERNS: Tech companies investing in AI businesses that purchase their products have raised questions among investors that they are artificially propping up demand Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday said that the company would be participating in OpenAI’s latest funding round, describing it as potentially “the largest investment we’ve ever made.” “We will invest a great deal of money,” Huang told reporters while visiting Taipei. “I believe in OpenAI. The work that they do is incredible. They’re one of the most consequential companies of our time.” Huang did not say exactly how much Nvidia might contribute, but described the investment as “huge.” “Let Sam announce how much he’s going to raise — it’s for him to decide,” Huang said, referring to OpenAI
The global server market is expected to grow 12.8 percent annually this year, with artificial intelligence (AI) servers projected to account for 16.5 percent, driven by continued investment in AI infrastructure by major cloud service providers (CSPs), market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. Global AI server shipments this year are expected to increase 28 percent year-on-year to more than 2.7 million units, driven by sustained demand from CSPs and government sovereign cloud projects, TrendForce analyst Frank Kung (龔明德) told the Taipei Times. Demand for GPU-based AI servers, including Nvidia Corp’s GB and Vera Rubin rack systems, is expected to remain high,
RSS