Negotiations are to be held with Fubon Financial Holding Co chairman Daniel Tsai (蔡明忠) over the Taipei New Horizon complex, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday amid a dispute over one floor in the 13-story building.
A standoff between the city and Taipei New Horizon — whose management firm is owned by Fubon — was sparked after the firm rejected the city’s demands that the Fubon subsidiary Taiwan Mobile Co vacate a floor by the end of last month.
Ko dismissed Taipei New Horizon’s strong response and said he was confident that Tsai would be more willing to make concessions.
Taipei Department of Cultural Affairs Commission Ni Chung-hwa (倪重華) denied that negotiations had “broken down,” saying that the talks are a “drawn-out process.”
He said he could not believe Taipei New Horizon’s initial response was that the city should buy out its lease on the property, which was constructed on city-owned land under a build-operate-transfer (BOT) contract.
“Is clearing out one floor all that serious?” Ni said. “If they did not agree with the timeline we could have held consultations — I do not understand why they decided to play hardball.”
There are limits to what businesses can be defined as belonging to the “cultural and creative industries,” he said.
The company’s contract with the city requires that 65 percent of the building be occupied by cultural or creative companies and groups.
The city has said that Taiwan Mobile fails to meet the definition of a “cultural and creative industry.”
None of the main businesses listed by Taipei New Horizon in its tax returns meet the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ definition of “cultural and creative industries,” the Department of Cultural Affairs said, adding that the firm had also been unable to produce evidence that its offices were used for that purpose.
Taiwan Mobile and other Fubon subsidiaries occupy more than 60 percent of the complex.
Meanwhile, Taipei New Horizon said it sought to terminate the BOT contract as a last resort to resolve the row with the city government.
The company said its investment on the complex totaled NT$13.87 billion (US$450.7 million), including construction costs and royalty payments to the city.
The Department of Cultural Affairs recently released assessment said Taipei New Horizon should pay a royalty fee of between NT$3.7 billion and NT$7.3 billion.
Under the contract, Taipei New Horizon is required to pay 0.5 percent of its total leasing revenue as royalty to the city, so the city’s request to raise the royalty fee and change the terms of calculation have violated the agreement, the company said.
The city government said it wants to use the total revenue of the commercial space as the basis for calculating the royalty fee instead of leasing revenue.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard