Foreign exchange regulators said yesterday that they are poised to deregulate currency exchange between the New Taiwan dollar and the yuan — as long as legal revisions are finalized by the legislature.
“We’re ready,” central bank Deputy Governor George Chou (周阿定) said, whose comments were echoed by Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) Chairman Hu Sheng-cheng (胡勝正) and acting Minister of Finance Lee Ruey-tsang (李瑞倉) at the legislature’s Finance Committee.
Once Article 38 of the Statute Governing the Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例) is revised by the legislature and a currency clearing agreement is inked between Taiwan and China, the central bank, the FSC and the ministry said they will speed up their preparations for the free exchange of the NT dollar and the yuan.
The central bank proposed a two-phase process yesterday. The incoming government should adopt a one-way exchange first, allowing domestic banks to buy Chinese yuan since the supply of yuan remains a big question because the central bank has no yuan in reserves, Chou said.
Once China agrees to sign a currency-clearing pact to ensure the yuan’s convertability and supply, a currency exchange can be opened once domestic banks have been trained to identify fake yuan bills, he said.
Taiwanese made 4 million trips to China last year, which would put great pressure on domestic banks if they are immediately asked to sell yuan, Chou said.
A test run that allowed banks in Kinmen and Matsu to trade less than 20,000 yuan (US$2,850) per person showed that banks there sold 443.8 million yuan between October 2005 and last month — six times more than the 78.56 million yuan they bought during the same period, central bank statistics show.
Since the yuan is not a “fully convertible” currency like the US dollar, it could be risky to hold too much of the currency, Chou said.
People can preregister to receive their NT$10,000 (US$325) cash distributed from the central government on Nov. 5 after President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday signed the Special Budget for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience, the Executive Yuan told a news conference last night. The special budget, passed by the Legislative Yuan on Friday last week with a cash handout budget of NT$236 billion, was officially submitted to the Executive Yuan and the Presidential Office yesterday afternoon. People can register through the official Web site at https://10000.gov.tw to have the funds deposited into their bank accounts, withdraw the funds at automated teller
PEACE AND STABILITY: Maintaining the cross-strait ‘status quo’ has long been the government’s position, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan is committed to maintaining the cross-strait “status quo” and seeks no escalation of tensions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday, rebutting a Time magazine opinion piece that described President William Lai (賴清德) as a “reckless leader.” The article, titled “The US Must Beware of Taiwan’s Reckless Leader,” was written by Lyle Goldstein, director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Defense Priorities think tank. Goldstein wrote that Taiwan is “the world’s most dangerous flashpoint” amid ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He said that the situation in the Taiwan Strait has become less stable
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
FRESH LOOK: A committee would gather expert and public input on the themes and visual motifs that would appear on the notes, the central bank governor said The central bank has launched a comprehensive redesign of New Taiwan dollar banknotes to enhance anti-counterfeiting measures, improve accessibility and align the bills with global sustainability standards, Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) told a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee yesterday. The overhaul would affect all five denominations — NT$100, NT$200, NT$500, NT$1,000 and NT$2,000 notes — but not coins, Yang said. It would be the first major update to the banknotes in 24 years, as the current series, introduced in 2001, has remained in circulation amid rapid advances in printing technology and security standards. “Updating the notes is essential to safeguard the integrity
RSS