Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) Chairman William Tseng (曾銘宗) yesterday rejected media reports suggesting irregularities in the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp’s plans to build a new office complex in one of Taipei’s most coveted land redevelopment zones.
“The Taiwan Stock Exchange’s plans conform to regulatory guidelines and the false reporting is typical of pre-election rumor-mongering,” Tseng told reporters at a forum on the internationalization of the yuan.
Tseng was referring to a claim by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲), who was quoted in a report published yesterday by the Liberty Times (the sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) as saying that Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp’s plans to build a NT$20 billion (US$605.14 million) office complex on a parcel of land larger than 3,000m2 under a redevelopment project at the Air Force Command’s former headquarters.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Huang accused the government of favoring big business by granting the company the right to use the land for 70 years without gaining the approval of the legislature.
“Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp is an organization established under a government charter and tasked with serving the public’s interests. It is not a business conglomerate,” Tseng said in response.
Tseng also said that the Taiwan Stock Exchange is regulated by the commission and the legislature’s Finance Committee, and that business conglomerates are not subject to such rigorous monitoring by the government.
In addition, unlike its counterparts in other nations, the nation’s stock exchnage does not have its own dedicated office complex, a shortcoming that needs to be addressed to elevate Taiwan’s image on the international stage, Tseng said.
Tseng also said that the project’s expected cost was forecast at NT$12 billion.
According to the Liberty Times report, Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp chairman Lee Sush-der (李述德), who is widely perceived to be a close political ally of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), had “quietly” submitted a NT$18 billion budget for a new office complex in October, just months before the Jan. 16 presidential election.
The report quoted Huang as saying that because private enterprises — including Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控), Yuanta Financial Holding Co (元大金控) and Chiloo Industries Inc (齊魯企業), which is run by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) — hold a 60 percent stake in Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp, the government, with its 40 percent stake, would be inappropriately benefiting business conglomerates by handing over the land.
Huang said that government-affiliated Sinotech Engineering Consultants Ltd (中興工程顧問公司) would likely be awarded the project.
The former headquarters of the air force span a 7.15 hectare plot of land on Renai Road.
Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp’s new complex is to house the equities and futures exchanges, as well as related financial supervisory bodies and clearing houses, the company said.
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