Taiwan is close to allowing Chinese financial institutions to set up representative offices here for the first time in 55 years, as economic relations improve.
"We have already reached a consensus to allow those companies from China to come here," said Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman Kong Jaw-sheng (
"So it's just a matter of time. It may happen any day now," he said.
Beijing so far has allowed seven Taiwanese banks to set up representative offices in China, and three other applications have been approved.
Executives from Cathay Financial Holding Co, the country's biggest financial group, were in China yesterday for the official opening of an insurance venture with China Eastern Air Holding Co, China's third-largest airline. An estimated 1 million Taiwanese live and work in China, where US$100 billion has been invested by Taiwanese businesses.
"The move shows Taiwan's strong determination to develop into a regional financial center," said Andrew Chen, who oversees the equivalent of US$2.7 billion as president of HSBC Asset Management Taiwan.
"This also sends goodwill to China, signaling the government's willingness to facilitate regional economic integration that will also help Taiwan," he said.
China Merchants Bank, Industrial Bank Co, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (Asia) Ltd and Pudong Development Bank in November 2003 received approval from Chinese regulators to set up representative offices in Taiwan. They are still awaiting approval from the government here. China's big four banks -- Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Agricultural Bank of China -- are reorganizing to meet competition from overseas lenders that will enter the market of 1.3 billion people freely at the end of next year.
Expanding overseas benefits the banks as they diversify income and raise their profile ahead of international share sales.
Taiwan's GDP is forecast to grow 4.6 percent this year, compared with a projected 5.9 percent last year. China's economy expanded 9.5 percent in the fourth quarter from the year earlier period.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2