The Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp (KRTC) yesterday rebutted media reports that it would declare bankruptcy in June.
At a press conference in Kaohsiung, KRTC president Liu San-chi (劉三錡) dismissed a report in this week’s issue of the Chinese-language Next Magazine that said Liu would announce during its annual shareholders’ meeting in June that the company was bankrupt.
Next said KRTC had debts of more than NT$5 billion (US$157.6 million), or more than half of its capital of NT$10 billion
The report said Liu would ask the city government to take over the company at a cost of NT$25.5 billion, as stated in the city government’s build-operate-transfer contract with KRTC.
Dismissing the report, Liu said its assets of NT$42.8 billion continued to outweigh its liabilities, at NT$37.7 billion.
He said he would only report at the shareholders’ meeting that KRTC’s deficit had exceeded half of the company’s capital as required by law, Liu said.
On hearing about the report, Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) immediately voiced her concerns to Chang Chia-chu (張家祝), chairman of China Steel Co — KRTC’s biggest shareholder, the city government said.
The chairman told the mayor that the company would continue its operations and would not go bankrupt, the city government said.
KRTC mass rapid transit (MRT) system commenced operations two years ago, but the company is still in the red because of low passenger volume.
Liu blamed the city’s Bureau of Mass Rapid Transit for the story, saying someone from the bureau was feeding the magazine wrong information in a bid to have him replaced.
Bureau of Mass Rapid Transit Director-General Chen Kai-ling (陳凱凌) dismissed the allegations.
In other news, the city government yesterday began to invite proposals from international architects for the nation’s first oceanic culture and pop music center.
The center will be built on Kaohsiung Harbor piers 11 to 15.
Yang Ming-chou (楊明州), deputy director-general of the city’s Public Works Bureau, told a press conference in Taipei that the city hoped to build an international landmark.
The total budget for the 11.89-hectare project is set at NT$4.3 billion and is expected to be completed by the end of 2015, Yang said.
The project will include an indoor hall with at least 3,500 seats and another outdoor venue with 12,000 seats, Yang said.
More information is available on www.kpop.com.tw.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching