Opposition lawmakers yesterday accused the Ministry of Culture of disproportionately allocating money from its creative industry investment fund to projects in which show business mogul Wang Wei-chung (王偉忠) is involved.
Wang, one of the most influential agents and producers in the nation’s entertainment industry, received at least NT$83 million (US$2.85 million) of the National Development Fund’s (NDF) total investment of NT$300 million in the industry for his projects, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) and Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator Lin Shih-chia (林世嘉) told a joint press conference.
“We recognize Wang’s expertise in the show business, but we also would like to ask: Is he the only one in Taiwan who’s worthy of all that investment?” Lee said.
Photo: Sean Chao, Taipei Times
The ministry invested the fund’s NT$300 million in 14 projects of 12 venture capital companies and Wang served as board members in several of the companies involved, the lawmakers said.
TC-1 Culture Fund, of which Wang serves as a board member, was granted four of the 14 projects and invested NT$22 million in Huan-hsing Entertainment and NT$35 million in South Island Film Inc.
Wang serves on the board of directors of both companies, Lee said.
Jifu Culture Creative Investment, one of the 12 venture capital companies, invested NT$8 million in Huang-hsing.
Another company securing investment from the NDF, Polyface Investment Management, invested NT$81 million in a film company and collaborated with Wang on a film, Lee said, adding that TC-1 Culture Fund invested NT$18 million in Magic Alley Entertainment, at which Wang also serves as a board member, in another project.
The ministry violated regulations by not sending people to serve on the boards of directors in the companies with investment from the 12 venture capital funds, said Lin, who first raised questions about Wang’s involvement in the projects in April.
Award-winning screenwriter Neil Peng (馮光遠) told the press conference that he did not oppose the ministry’s investment in the culture creative industry, but “transparency is the key word.”
“It’s sad to see the government budget on cultural development being wasted this way and it puzzles me that certain people always secure subsidies and investment from the government,” Peng said.
The ministry responded to the allegations with a press release later yesterday that said its entire process of grants for creative industry projects was done according to law.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,