Ching Fu Shipbuilding Co (慶富造船) twice this year asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for help securing a loan, but the requests were rejected, a source close to the matter said yesterday.
In its requests to the ministry, Ching Fu said the loan was for a shipbuilding project it had undertaken in Tuvalu, one of the nation’s allies in the South Pacific, the source said on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.
The company had built a ship for Tuvalu in 2009 at a cost of US$15.5 million and was working on a second vessel that it started in 2012 and was scheduled to complete in 2015, the source said.
Photo: Wang yi-sung, Taipei Times
However, Ching Fu has not finished the second ship, and on June 3 and June 16 it sent letters to the ministry asking for help to secure a loan to complete the project, the source said.
The ministry turned down the two requests, saying that the contract was between Ching Fu and the Tuvaluan government, and that it would be inappropriate for the ministry to intervene, the source said.
The ministry said it would become involved only if the dispute between the two parties put the nations’ diplomatic relations at risk, the source said.
Asked to comment on the issue, ministry spokesman Andrew Lee (李憲章) said the ministry did not use taxpayers’ money to help Ching Fu complete the shipbuilding projects in Tuvalu.
It was purely a commercial dispute between the Tuvaluan government and Ching Fu, Lee said, adding that the ministry was never involved.
He said the Tuvaluan government has not asked the ministry or Taiwan’s embassy in that nation to assist in the matter.
However, the ministry did ask the embassy to closely monitor developments in the case, Lee said.
Ching Fu has been embroiled in a fraud scandal over a contract that it won from the Ministry of National Defense in October 2014 to build six minesweepers at a cost of NT$34.9 billion (US$1.16 billion at the current exchange rate).
DRONE CENTRAL: Taiwan aims to become Asia’s democratic hub for drones, with most exports focused on high-quality military-grade models, an official said Taiwan’s drone industry is expected to expand significantly by 2030, producing 100,000 units per month and exporting half of them, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Current drone production capacity is about 15,000 units per month, but the industry can quickly scale up as demand increases, Industrial Development Administration Director-General Chiou Chyou-huey (邱求慧) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s drone output grew 2.5-fold last year to NT$12.9 billion (US$408.3 million) under a government program to develop the uncrewed vehicle sector, he said. The Executive Yuan in October last year approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion into domestic production of uncrewed aerial
WARNING: China should stop engaging in actions that undermine regional peace and stability, as it would only build resentment among people across the Strait, the CGA said China has deployed more than 100 navy, coast guard and other vessels in waters from the Yellow Sea to the South China Sea and the western Pacific since US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) met in Beijing, National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday. “In this part of the world, #China is the one & only PROBLEM wrecking the #StatusQuo & threatening regional peace & stability,” Wu wrote on X. In a separate post, he said Beijing was coercing Taiwan’s maritime domain, calling it illegal and provocative, after the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) expelled a
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
More than 8,000 people took part in a rally in Taipei yesterday to express support for more defense spending, after the opposition slashed the Cabinet’s proposed NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.6 billion) special defense budget and capped it at NT$780 billion. The demonstrators urged the Cabinet to propose another bill. Taiwan Economic Democracy Union convener Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) said the main problem of the passed budget plan is the removal of funding for critical items, not just that the total amount is smaller. Critical budget items included purchasing or developing uncrewed vehicles, Strong Bow (強弓) missile systems, additional ammunition, artificial intelligence-powered combat systems and Taiwan-US
RSS