The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) said yesterday that state-run Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC, 中國石油) and China Shipbuilding Corp (CSBC, 中國造船) would soon be renamed to include "Taiwan" in their company titles in accordance with government policy.
"Changing the names of state-run enterprises will help avoid confusion and increase Taiwan's international presence," Minister of Economic Affairs Steve Chen (陳瑞隆) said.
The nation's largest oil refiner plans to change its name to "CPC, Taiwan" (台灣中油). The company will hold a board meeting on Friday to discuss the issue, said Liao Tsang-long (廖滄龍), deputy director of CPC's public relations division.
After the name change, instead of immediately removing signs and trademarks bearing the old name from gas stations and equipment, CPC will replace the signs and equipment when they become too old or are damaged, the company said.
Costly scheme
The replacement scheme will cost the company NT$70 million (US$2.13 million), CPC said, without giving the figure incurred from other issues related to the change, such as renewing contracts with domestic and overseas customers, reprinting business cards and company documents and redesigning its trademark.
The costs will put a heavy burden on CPC, as the company already saw losses of NT$18.7 billion last year because of high oil prices.
CSBC would also be renamed Taiwan International Shipbuilding Corp (台灣國際造船), CSBC president Fan Kuang-nan (范光男) said in a telephone interview yesterday. The company is also scheduled to hold a board meeting on Friday to discuss the issue.
It was difficult to estimate how much it would cost CSBC to complete the name change, especially in contract renewals, as its clients, suppliers and business partners may have different requirements when carrying out the procedure, Fan said.
CSBC has built a considerable reputation internationally in the shipbuilding industry and was ranked No. 17 in the receiving and delivery of orders last year, Fan said.
Long history
With a long history of doing business internationally, the name CSBC has hardly ever caused confusion among customers, he said.
"But in Taiwan, political concerns are always put ahead of business," he said.
Another company that has been targeted in the name change campaign is China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空), but Chen did not address this yesterday.
CAL said earlier that its name was valuable in the greater China market.
Although previously well-known in the international community and with a large number of overseas branches, the state-controlled International Commercial Bank of China (ICBC, 中國國際商銀), is now called Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐國際商銀) after merging with another state-run entity, Chiao Tung Bank (交通銀行).
"A company's title is a valuable asset that takes a lot of time and effort to establish ? any name change is bound to influence a company's reputation," Tung Shu-chi (董樹杞), assistant vice president of Mega's Ho Chi Minh City branch told the Taipei Times.
The issue of changing the name of state-run enterprises is part of the government's "name-rectification" policy, aimed at avoiding Taiwanese companies being mistaken for Chinese ones. The economics ministry is expected to announce other name changes next week.
The combined effect of the monsoon, the outer rim of Typhoon Fengshen and a low-pressure system is expected to bring significant rainfall this week to various parts of the nation, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The heaviest rain is expected to occur today and tomorrow, with torrential rain expected in Keelung’s north coast, Yilan and the mountainous regions of Taipei and New Taipei City, the CWA said. Rivers could rise rapidly, and residents should stay away from riverbanks and avoid going to the mountains or engaging in water activities, it said. Scattered showers are expected today in central and
COOPERATION: Taiwan is aligning closely with US strategic objectives on various matters, including China’s rare earths restrictions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan could deal with China’s tightened export controls on rare earth metals by turning to “urban mining,” a researcher said yesterday. Rare earth metals, which are used in semiconductors and other electronic components, could be recovered from industrial or electronic waste to reduce reliance on imports, National Cheng Kung University Department of Resources Engineering professor Lee Cheng-han (李政翰) said. Despite their name, rare earth elements are not actually rare — their abundance in the Earth’s crust is relatively high, but they are dispersed, making extraction and refining energy-intensive and environmentally damaging, he said, adding that many countries have opted to
African swine fever was confirmed at a pig farm in Taichung, the Ministry of Agriculture said today, prompting a five-day nationwide ban on transporting and slaughtering pigs, and marking the loss of Taiwan’s status as the only Asian nation free of all three major swine diseases. The ministry held a news conference today confirming that the virus was detected at a farm in Wuci District (梧棲) yesterday evening. Authorities preemptively culled 195 pigs at the farm at about 3am and disinfected the entire site to prevent the disease from spreading, the ministry said. Authorities also set up a 3km-radius control zone
CONCESSION: A Shin Kong official said that the firm was ‘willing to contribute’ to the nation, as the move would enable Nvidia Crop to build its headquarters in Taiwan Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽) yesterday said it would relinquish land-use rights, or known as surface rights, for two plots in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投), paving the way for Nvidia Corp to expand its office footprint in Taiwan. The insurer said it made the decision “in the interest of the nation’s greater good” and would not seek compensation from taxpayers for potential future losses, calling the move a gesture to resolve a months-long impasse among the insurer, the Taipei City Government and the US chip giant. “The decision was made on the condition that the Taipei City Government reimburses the related
RSS